SA Rocks

I was fortunate enough to receive photos of the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban over email.

I managed to find a source for the photographs. Credit goes to Lefty Shivambu for the all of the photos.

Have a look for yourself.

Forget Greenpoint, Port Elizabeth or any other stadium, this one simply blows my mind.

images: Karen Lotter

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I blogged about the need for 15000 volunteers to come forward for the 2010 Football World Cup. It seems as thought people in SA and around the world are not shy to lend a hand.

SouthAfrica.info reports that over 11000 volunteers have already come forward and offered their services from all across the globe. That’s impressive if you ask me.

Just days after opening its 2010 Fifa World Cup volunteer programme, South Africa has already received more than 11 000 volunteer applications from the country, the continent and the rest of the world.

Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC), told reporters after a meeting in Johannesburg last week that around 1 100 of these were from the rest of Africa and 1 500 from overseas.

“South Africans and other countries have responded very well to the programme, and we expect more applications before the closing date [31 August],” Jordaan said.

“This … clearly shows that people are looking forward to the event in which volunteers are significantly important. We are very impressed with the current number of applications.”

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I just read on the Mail & Guardian that Fifa’s 2010 World Cup being held in South Africa is asking for 15 000 volunteers.

Apparently anyone over 18 on March 1 2010 can apply from anywhere in the world:

Anyone 18 years or older on March 1 2010, and who has a good command of the English language, can apply. Application forms are available on the Fifa website or at a number of venues across the Cup’s host cities.

I think this is something very cool to get involved in. Apparently at the Beijing Olympics it was the volunteers who made all the difference. Some debate arose around “manufacturing” ambiance or actually having a real vibe. But lets be honest, we want the stadiums filled, the vibe rocking and the event to run smoothly.

Jobs available to volunteers include: accreditation, marketing, media and protocol services, welcoming and ushering spectators and providing them and other people involved in the event with information.

Applications close August 31 2009 so get cracking.

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Found this video over at Zoopy.

Very cool to see the Durban 2010 stadium looking as good as it does. Everyone keeps talking about the Greenpoint stadium but I personally LOVE the Durban stadium. Have a look:

Durban 2010 timelapse.

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One of my favourite websites on the Internet has to be Boston.com’s Big Picture.

Thanks to twitter I discovered that Boston.com features Soccer in South Africa as the focus of their pictures this week.

Here are two photos but for more you’ll need to visit The Big Picture – Soccer in South Africa.

Helen Daws commented: “BC Big Picture – Soccer in SA http://tinyurl.com/lkxdsk pity its so biased tho, not really the full picture”

To which I responded that I felt that it is a fairly unbiased view of football in SA as many, many South Africans experience football in the way depicted in the photographs.

What are your thoughts? What do you think of these photographs?

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I actually watched almost all of the Bafana Bafana vs New Zealand Confederations Cup match last night.

I was impressed (which is why I watched most of the game) with the skill of the players on our team. I was impressed that we could score goals. Scoring goals has been a major issue of ours over the past few years. It seems we have found the net, eventually.

I was incredibly impressed with our defensive line. Booth, the man is massive and a towering figure (who occasionally needs to get in to the box and head the ball a bit more often) who holds up the defense brilliantly. Our midfield came to the party and fed brilliant ball to the striker and star of the evening, Bernard Parker, who put away two great goals and should’ve had more.

Personally I felt that Steven Pienaar was the man of the match (and also a member of my team, Everton, in the English Premier League). He played out of his boots, was aggressive and practical when feeding and holding on to the ball.

All in all a great performance rewarded with a 2-0 victory. Sadly the All Whites were yet again beaten and will probably be knocked out of the Confederations cup. Oh well.

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It is official; the 2010 World Cup will be in South Africa is a few days less than 1 year. The biggest sporting event in the world is on its way to SA and President Zuma helped kick off the countdown.

Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town was the venue and all the relevant dignitries were in attendance:

This is a great Zille-Zuma moment after a very aggressive election campaign from both parties. Nice to see the two top politicians in SA doing their professional bit in front of the press.

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I managed to secure 4 tickets to a Round 16 game at Ellis Park. Not too shabby I don’t think. To be honest, I just wanted to attend. This could be a once in a lifetime chance to go to the biggest sporting event in the world and not have to mortgage my house for the tickets!

Let me know what games you managed to get tickets for or if you were left empty-handed. A friend of a friend received 4 tickets to the final. I know it’s meant to be completely random allocation but I can’t help feel as if I’ve been hard done by. I want opening ceremony or finals. Come on!

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Well, the statue of Madiba at Nelson Mandela Square is all dressed up for the 2010 World Cup. As you can see below he is wearing a lovely yellow football jersey!

It might be something “small” in terms of marketing and promotion but I think it’s a fantastic idea considering the amount of people in general and tourists in specific who take their picture with the massive and interestingly proportioned Madiba Statue.

Good work I think. Very nice.

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It appears that the new Bafana Bafana football jersey has been unveiled.

The photo’s appeared on Flickr today.

And here they are:

It appears that credit for the photos go to Shine2010

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