South African based Manchester City fan, Mariner sent us the following.
Countdown to 2010 #11
As all the world knows, we have had the draw for the opening groups and whilst England appear to have a reasonably good chance of progressing the host nation did not have any luck at all with Mexico, Uruguay and France.
Brave noises are being made around the countryside but the stark facts are, unless the team improves considerably they may be the first host country to exit in the preliminary round. We all hope this can be avoided as the effect on local interest could be disastrous without Bafana.
At the ceremony, Charlize Theron looked fantastic and with impeccably groomed hair, David Beckham, by contrast looked as if he had just been through a tribal Red Indian initiation ceremony. What is it with DB and his haircuts?
The first game at the Moses Mabhida stadium was played on Wednesday last between two local teams ‘Amazulu’ and ‘Pietermaritzburg Utd’. The attendance was restricted to 26,000 to give the marshals a chance to exercise their crowd control, but probably just as well as the regular support of the two teams combined probably struggles to pass the 5000 mark the rest were there out of curiosity. As far as the game went – once again mind numbingly boring ten men United beat Amazulu 1-0 and the late night TV programme had a serious problem finding any highlights to show.
The rain bucketed down and with the wind from an easterly direction hence why nearly all the spectators in the western end of the ground got drenched. The reverse would also apply if the wind came from the west and a spokesman has stated that the ideal would be if the rain came down vertically!! and estimated that, with a 70,000 full house, up to forty percent of the spectators would get a soaking. As the main wind directions here are north east and south west (wind follows the coastline generally) we better pray for a dry spell during the tournament.
Have to admit to being more excited about the Carling Cup semi final draw and trust we can rediscover our supremacy of the late 60s and early 70s.