If you are one of the those people who is totally disgusted with the way the 2010 World cup has seemingly taken over everything then you will not be pleased that Kumekucha will be covering the 2010 World cup. But please don’t be too worried because our usual political reporting as well as other articles will continue and we will only be making occasional analysis on major issues that come up during the tournament… starting with the opening game earlier today.World cup opener, South Africa versus Mexico
You will already be aware of the fact that the opening game of the 2010 World cup ended in a 1-1 draw. For me the match raised quite a number of interesting issues.
To start with many analysts are convinced that the linesman was influenced by the intimidating shouting home crowd in making his call for offside when Carlos Vela scored for Mexico late in the first half. The issue of match officials being intimidated is going to be a very major thing in this tournament. Not only when South Africa are playing but when other African countries in the tournament are playing as well. Rugby enthusiasts will remember how the South African crowds intimidated Rugby referees during the 2005 Rugby World cup also held in that country. It may be the extra push that African countries need to go far in this World cup, but is it fare?
Interestingly FIFA have refused to embrace technology to the extent that Rugby has where instant replays help officials make crucial decisions where what has happened is less than obvious. I strongly believe that if the referee had looked at the replay he would have allowed Mexico’s goal in the first half and that would have changed the whole destiny of the game.
The second thing that came out was the ability of an experienced coach to outthink their counterpart and turn the course of a game in an instant. In the first half South Africa were very lucky not to have gone for the breather not having conceded at least 3 goals. But in the second half the same team was unlucky not to have scored at the very least three goals. A change in tactics at half time did the trick. South African coach 67 year old Carlos Alberto Parreira is very experienced, probably one of the most experienced and gifted coaches the game has ever produced. Read more about the long eventful career of Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Parreira is one of only two coaches that has led four national teams to the World Cup: Kuwait (1982), United Arab Emirates (1990) Brazil (1994 and 2006) and Saudi Arabia (1998). He was also involved to some extent with the legendary 1970 championship team for Brazil, which he said inspired him to aspire to be a national football coach. Parreira has today equaled this record with the opening game handling the South African national side in this World cup.
If there is anybody who can bring the best out of a side that is not particularly good then it is Parreira.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteWewe wacha kuonea Azania. You are either with us of with the enemy and there is no kati kati please.
You must have eaten with the referee. But I cannot fail to see your GOONER soft spot for Vela's goal (GOTCHA).
That said coaches/mamangers nowadays PLAY and win games. Just ask the SPECIAL ONE who makes every player feel so important so much so that they end up playing for Jose and not the team. Well, if in doubt just ask the DROG.
So you are right Carlos Alberto Perriera can make tactical genius of footbal minnows. In the meantime let us enjoy the historic WC on Africa soil.
And please keeep it UNEDUCATED, no conspiracy theories. Raw joy is authentic, ama?
PS: Point of correction: Springbok won Raga WC in 1995 and it cannot be a decade later. You know I know this becasue Mo1 was still around and I was over 55 years-old then. Na wewe wapi fake scholarship?
Taabu my friend,
ReplyDeleteYou are a true soccer fan. You go into hibernation but when I post something on the beautiful game you are the first to leave a comment. And yet you never bother to reply to my emails.
Heheheheheheehe. What a naughty 55 year old!!!!
-Kumekucha-
Taabu,hio yako ni kali:-Ati no conspiracy theories?Be sure there was someone ready to come up with a lengthy analysis of why no African team can ever be allowed to win the world cup.A game invented by our former colonizers...he he!
ReplyDeleteHow about some interesting issues and facts about this cute game?
ReplyDelete- The TV monoliths have leased rights to broadcast the Mundiales from the Swiss-based FIFA, the absolute DICTATOR of the sport for the past 106 years that counts 204 out of 208 football federations worldwide on its roster.
- From these arrangements, FIFA TV revenues are expected to top $167,000,000 USD for the
2010 World Cup.
- SA has sunk between between
$3.7 and $6 billion USD in infrastructure to burnish their images in a nation where 43 per cent of South Africa’s 45.000.000 peoples live on $2 or less a day.
- Just this year, Zuma was in London begging for $ 3.75 loan to Eskom.
- The gleaming $300,000,000 Soccer City Stadium where the July 11th finals will be staged, abuts Soweto, the festering high-crime enclave of 3,000,000 mostly threadbare citizens, 30 per
cent of whom suffer from AIDS, according to the World Health Organization.
- Similarly, the stadium at Port Elizabeth on Nelson Mandela Bay, which came in at $287,000,000, was built over a SLUM from which hundreds were evicted. A school complex was demolished to make way for the Neusprot venue (only $140,000,000).
– 13 such stadiums have risen from
the dust amidst a storm of charges of kickbacks, bribery, and
favoritism. Some who have spoken up have been brutalized.
- If recent history is any hint, the new stadiums will quickly become certifiable white elephants. Even Beijing’s much-praised “Birds’ Nest” coliseum designed for the 2008 Olympics, is reportedly tenantless, and
the Greek economy just collapsed under the burden of debt incurred in part for infrastructure for its Olympic Games.
- Given the poverty in SA, filling all these dazzling stadia with paying customers is problematic.
-Even the $18 cheap seats – a week’s wages in the cities and a month’s income in some rural areas – are mostly out of reach in a country where 50 per cent of the work force is out of work.
- To deflect a grave social
crisis in the making, the FIFA is offering 120,000 free admissions,
about 2200 seats for each of the World Cup’s 62 contests.
Enjoy the game.
Chris if only u can familiarize ya lazy self wth Fifa offside rule then u wl know better! Enough said i jst hope 2 watch a game btw North Korea vs USA. Av a safe politics free month n mwarangetheless economy/wealth/land monologues!
ReplyDeleteHey, is it true that Raila is in South African, not to watch soccer, but to be a customer to a world famous witch doctor? If so, I blame it on South Mugirango people for not voting the "correct" way and consequently forcing the ODM chieftain to go consult huyu mganga. The mganga is notorious for demanding his clients present themselves NAKED.
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteThe second game between France and Uruguay was equally disgusting for me. I thought the japanese referee just didnt like France for some reason. A number of calls against France were questionable. In the end, it was Uruguay who lost a man, but that is because the referree had started dishing out yellow cards too early in the game.