Soccer is my latest passion and watching it takes up a fair amount time now. It’s so much fun reading news and sharing views with “like-minded” people. But last night I got up and walked away from the Spain vs. Chile game.
One commentator said that red cards are the new yellow cards. These referees are stifling the games with their liberal dishing out of cards. The Chilean guy who was red carded, barely tapped the Swiss guy’s foot. Enthusiasm is being penalised harshly.
But the last 10 minutes of the game are what really annoyed me. The Spanish team slowly passed the ball back and forth and the Chileans made no effort whatsoever to play the game. Why bother? Now to my mind that sort of play is deserving of a red card. But then what do I know?
Visitors to Cape Town – be alert! The brightest star in our heavens is visible here. Sirius can be found by looking for Orion’s belt. It’s in line with the belt and is obviously the brightest star. Make a wish.
The Dutch sure lived up to their reputation as fierce soccer supporters last night. My goodness what a lively lot they are. There can’t be many people left in Holland. At least half of the Hollanders have to be in Cape Town.
The fan walk was a sea of orange. Initial expectations for visitors to South Africa for the 2010 Soccer World Cup were around half a million people. After the Eugene Terreblance murder and Julius Malema’s utterances expectations dropped to 300K people. Current visitor figures are just over 450K people and apparently flights are filling up fast with last minute bookings.
Tonight the big game is Holland vs. Cameroon. Our Dutch guests have hung up their flags and we are still flying the two loser flags from group A.
A small group of us are going walkabout later along the fan walk. The fans are the best part of the Soccer Cup. You have to love some of the outfits that these folk put together. The Dutch fans call themselves the Oranjegektes. It’s not hard to spot the Holland supporters in unmissable bright orange getups. Yikes!
A friend returned from Amsterdam last week and she said that the streets were alive with cheers when Holland scored. And wait for it. She heard the unmistakable sound of a seriously big bunch of vuvuzelas. They are everywhere those things.
Nearly every guest arrives or leaves our place with a vuvuzela. Apparently factories in the east can’t keep up with the demand for them.
I have been watching the saga of the French football team and coach with interest. And the way the French have handled it thus far.
For some time now I have felt that we have no real role models any more. Most kids have no idea who Ghandi is, but they sure know who Wayne Rooney is. Kids have to be coaxed to care but they easily love labels.
That is something I love about our rural children. People feel sorry for them because they don’t have much. They don’t feel sorry for themselves at all. Some of these kids walk 2 hours plus in the cold and dark to school every day. And you know what? They are happy. They wave and smile and spend all day outdoors. They help their elders without fuss. They have more than us when it comes down to it. It’s just not things they have.
Nelson Mandela comes from that sort of childhood. He returns to his home village of Qunu regularly to connect to his roots and traditions. Qunu is a modest place by most standards.
Let’s hope a tipping point for all this materialism has come and that we are returning to care based values.
South Africans take to the streets and party like the world is about to end. We are out the quarters but hey, we just beat France. Admittedly the French team is in tatters but we deserve plenty credit for playing with all our hearts.
Bafana Bafana, siya thanda wena. Translated from Zulu to English = Boys, we love you.
We could celebrate by doing Zulurobics. It’s a dance workout involving moves from Zulu warriors. Find out more at Zulurobics. Remember Shaka and his fierce army?
But I reckon most of our boys are heading to a shebeen or a tavern. It’s usually a garage or room where the guys hang out and drink helluva big bottles of beer. It’s a township thing those big beer bottles. A shebeen or tavern is the township equivalent of a bar but a lot more laid back. And yes the vuvus will be going all night long. Did they ever stop?
