Posted on 26 June 2009 by Nic Haralambous
The semi-final of the Confederation’s Cup 2009 was an absolutely thrilling game. Fifa’s 5th best team in the world required on the best pressure free kicks I’ve seen to beat South Africa, Fifa ranking of 77 at the time (now moved up 5 places to 72.
The fact remains that Bafana played a game like none they have played in many years. They looked like a top ten team and dare I say deserved to win. The truth is that they didn’t, and that’s OK with me because sometimes one needs to lose to learn. But the match that the Bafana squad played last night pulled a nation together and proved that we are on the right track.
To the coach, Joel Santana, my congratulations go out. He told everyone to judge him on the Confed Cup, well done sir, well done.
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Posted on 22 June 2009 by Nic Haralambous
It’s been a relatively good weekend for South African sports.
Bafana Bafana played great football on Saturday but sadly lost to Spain 2-0. In spite of the final score I felt that the lads played one helluva game and improved their football tenfold from their first performance in the Confederations Cup.
Now, lets just hope that Bafana can hold a MASSIVE upset and defeat Brazil in the semi-final. Surprisingly Egypt did not make it through to the semi’s. I think after their historic victory over World Champions Italy, they deserved to pip the USA and go through. Alas it was not to be.
And the Bokke pulled off a lucky victory against the British and Irish Lions on Saturday. I say lucky because we technically received a thumping in the second half of the match. A great performance in the first half put us up by a fair amount. The Beast had a ripper of a game and destroyed the scrums for the Lions. When he was replaced. Things went bad.
I am impressed with Mr Peter de Villiers and his response. He took blame for making substitutions too early in the game. This most definitely put us in a tricky slot. We handled it well and luckily came away with a win.
Finally, yes in case you had forgotten, we still lost the T20 semi-final. Pakistan however, ended up winning the tournament. Congratulations to them!
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