Will we see an All Whites Haka? The World Cup will be richer for the experience.
I had been keen on seeing Bahrain qualify. Bahrain were the sort of quick counter-attacking outfit capable of the odd 3-2 upset.
New Zealand inspire less confidence as Giant Killers. But who knows? A Haka just before kick-off might be worth a buried chicken or two.
Category: Hosting
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Pinned in their Own Half
Belated respect to the All Whites. New Zealand represent!
Bahrain’s unexpected defeat leaves the Arab World with only one representative in South Africa. Sayef Mohammed Adnan’s penalty miss in Wellington will have done more than just dampen the spirits on the Emir’s beach. It invites a significant Arab cultural deficit extending well beyond Bahrain.
This may well go unnoticed or be easily forgotten by Arab scholars and Arab media busy with grim development statistics and wars or captivated by ceremonial comings and goings and fashionable American and European diplomats and stars. It should not.
(Davy expects African sides to edge traditional Latin and Continental powers, but fancies England for the Cup. Below he discusses the likely England squad, highlighting what he expects to be the historic contribution of England’s black players.)
To be King in Africa, a useful prerequisite is to be a Black Prince. Africans have high expectations in 2010. Prince Michael of Ghana is regal. Didier of Orange, deadly. Other African Princes will soon have noble claims.
European and Latin Princes will not relinquish supremacy easily. Castilian legions led by the Boy Prince Fernando occupy the high ground. The colours of the canary have been sighted. Animals grow restless at the approaching beat of the Samba. Caravans of dancing distractions cannot be far behind.
England’s Princes are now schooled in the Florentine art of obtaining and maintaining possession. Possession is power. The tongue and territory will be familiar. Their opponents fattened at the premier table.
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Who will benefit from 2010?
Just as the football at the 2010 World Cup will be great, someone will make lots of money. It is not going to be local businesses for sure. This excellent 13 minute short documentary (“Trademark 2010″) for Dutch TV channel, VPRO, covers the fantasy that local people–small businesspeople, informal traders–will make money or get jobs during the tournament.
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‘The Poors’ vs South Africa 2010
People living in poverty near Soccer City stadium outside Johannesburg battle police during anti-World Cup protests. Local residents demand houses rather than world-class stadiums.
Recommended reading: Ashwin Desai’s The Poors and this article.
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Top 100 Football Grannies
Keeping football real. Hundreds of older South African women play the game after cleaning houses, cooking meals, or selling food in township streets. 83-year-old Nora Makhubela, a survivor of eight strokes, told Reuters: “I pray every day to God to keep me alive until 2010. I would really love to watch the games,” she said. Vakhegula Vakhegula (“grannies” in the local language) might even teach Bafana Bafana a thing or two.
Click here to read Ndundu Sithole’s story.
He ain’t no Moses. But it’s official. Carlos Alberto Parreira is back as Bafana coach through the 2010 World Cup. And laughing all the way to the bank, again.
This time, however, he’ll have to deal with resentment in South Africa over his reappointment, particularly among those who believed the time was right for a local coach to get the nod. Some sources say that SAFA is trying to deflect this criticism by striking a deal with Gavin Hunt, coach of Supersport, to take over Bafana after the World Cup.
The leadership that served South Africa so well in the “negotiated revolution” from apartheid to democracy appears to have kept its distance from the country’s football politics.