South Africa offered soccer fans a first glimpse of what they can expect at next year’s World Cup when it opened the 2009 Confederations Cup against Iraq. Local supporters will want a better on-field performance.
The eight-nation competition, bringing together the host with six regional champions and World Cup winner Italy, is seen as a warm-up to sport’s most-watched event, which will draw an estimated 450,000 visitors to South Africa in June 2010.
In front of a sellout 48,000 crowd at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park stadium, where many fans beat drums and blew on traditional vuvuzela horns during yesterday’s 0-0 draw, the nation’s President Jacob Zuma told his countrymen to embrace the moment.
“This is the day we have waited for,” Zuma said to applause from fans decked in the home team’s green and yellow colors. “This is a great day for Africa and South Africa.”
The country is spending about 28 billion rand ($3.5 billion dollars) to host the World Cup, the biggest sports event to take place in Africa. Five new stadiums are close to completion, while other major infrastructure projects are progressing.
Even so, the build-up has been marred by strikes over pay by construction workers and concerns over spectator safety. It led to speculation that soccer’s world governing body FIFA would relocate the event.
Trust, Confidence
“FIFA is committed to Africa,” FIFA President Sepp Blatter said yesterday in remarks that drew more cheers from fans. “The world of football trusts you, and the confidence is in you. It is in Africa, it is in South Africa today,” he said.
Coaches from around the world, including Switzerland’s Ottmar Hitzfeld and France’s Raymond Domenech, were in attendance to gauge the conditions they may face if their teams qualify for next year’s 32-nation event.
Even amid incessant noise from the home crowd, the South African team showed why locals fear they may become the first hosts not to make it through the group stages of the World Cup.
Bafana Bafana, as the team is known, failed to create many chances against an Iraqi team that’s already been eliminated from Asian World Cup qualifying.
“We were talking about how bad our team is,” Robert Segel, a soccer club chairman, said at halftime. “What we are seeing here is rubbish -- I’d prefer to watch my under-nine team.”
Missed Opportunities
The team squandered opportunities to win late in the second half. Thembinkosi Fanteni headed over from close range, then Bernard Parker couldn’t beat goalkeeper Mohammed Kassid when put clean through.
South Africa, which won one of its six previous World Cup matches, isn’t ranked among the top 10 African teams and failed to reach next year’s African Cup of Nations in Angola.
“Any team has to work hard, especially our team, which is being restructured, rebuilt with a well-defined game pattern,” South Africa’s Brazilian coach Joel Santana told reporters.
Fans at the match said it was vital that Santana’s team improves before it opens the World Cup on June 11, 2010. South Africa’s next Confederations Cup game is in two days against New Zealand, which yesterday lost 5-0 to European champion Spain.
“We need to have a team that can stand and represent us as a nation,” said Mzion Mofokeng, deputy chairman of the South African team’s supporters’ association. “The team has an obligation not to disgrace us.”
(Source: Bloomberg)
