Keeping ScoreWorld Cup
Today marked the highly anticipated debut of ESPN’s 3D network, with the South Africa-Mexico World Cup opener the first event televised by the fledgling channel. Over the past few years, every sports executive who fancies himself a futurist has been claiming that 3D TV will shake up the way we watch the games. Since I’m not quite ready …
With all due apologies to my fellow-blogger Tony Karon and 50 million other South Africans, that a pretty lame start to the tournament.
I know, I know: we’re all meant to celebrate the first game, to be happy for the host nation, to make allowances for the fact that first games are often ties… But set aide these niceties for a moment, …
Happy to swallow my prediction (0-1 to Mexico) along with the boerewors roll I got at Madiba’s, Brooklyn’s South African watering hole where the scene vaguely recalled that vignette in Joseph O’Neill’s fabulous New York praise poem, Netherland:
It was on Coney Island Avenue, on a subsequent occasion, that Chuck and I came upon a bunch
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Welcome to what feels like the most eagerly awaited day in the history of football: June 11, 2010 heralds the kick off on the 19th World Cup. The first to be held on African soil, if you needed reminded. TIME’s World Cup blog will be keeping you updated on all the events taking place at the opening ceremony and that first match between …
It’s not that they make too much noise, it’s that there’s no volume control.
The trouble with vuvuzelas is that they keep the noise level consistently high. There’s no perceptible increase or decrease of noise to go with the ebb and flow of the game. After Shabalala scored, you’d have expected the stadium to explode with noise. But …
The big idea behind holding the first soccer World Cup in Africa is to change perceptions and prove that Africa, or at least South Africa, is a place and a people as capable as any. With some awesome looking new stadiums, new roads, trains and airports across the country – and a great rock concert in Soweto last night headlined by stars …
“The first game in a group is always a big game,” injured English star David Beckham told me just before the World Cup. “It kind of sets the tone for the tournament. The manager always says so— and I’ve played in a few tournaments now—they are always so ready for that first game.” And England’s first game in Group C of …
The death of Nelson Mandela’s 13-year-old great grand-daughter in an early hours car crash in Johannesburg as she was being driven back from last night’s kick off concert in Soweto – just a day after her birthday – has turned what should have been a triumph into a tragedy for South Africa’s first family.
For those in the West who decry the encroachments of the “nanny state,” you ain’t seen nothing till you’ve come out to East Asia. A friend and local Hong Kong journalist forwarded to me a health advisory for World Cup fans put out by the territory’s government (Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China). It makes incredible …
South Africa vs. Mexico:
As I said yesterday, I think the ref could have a decisive role in South Africa’s opener against Mexico. Call me unpatriotic, but I’m finding it hard to imagine Bafana Bafana putting El Tri on the back foot, despite the crowd. More likely, it’ll be a tight affair, with both sides more desperate to avoid losing …
If you were to sum up the atmosphere at the opening concert to kick off the soccer World Cup in one word, it would be: disbelief.
