SuperSport promises better World Cup

TSHEPO MOLWANE
Staff Writer | Monday April 26, 2010 00:00

Nowadays, the language of most South Africans is the World Cup which comes to Africa for the first time this year. 'I believe that we are ready to welcome the world,' says one cleaner at the OR Tambo airport.

He cannot wait to see the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Kaka (Brazil) and Wayne Rooney (England) playing in South Africa.

The cleaner is one of the South Africans who believe that Bafana Bafana can cause a major upset at the World Cup. South Africa is in Group A with Uruguay, France and Mexico. Along R21 highway from the airport to Pretoria, constructors are busy redoing the road so that it can cater for thousands of spectators expected to throng to South Africa during the month-long showpiece.

It is not clear if the roads will be ready by the time the games kick off on June 11 but taxi driver Alpheous believes his country will be prepared for the World Cup. 'It seems everyone is pulling the same way,' he said.

While all stadiums in the country have passed the test, there have been concerns surrounding the performance of Bafana Bafana. Under coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, Bafana Bafana recently went to Brazil for an intensive training camp.

While most of the people in South Africa did not see the importance of taking the team to Brazil because Bafana Bafana did not play any strong opponents, TV presenter Thomas Mlambo of SuperSport Channel disagrees with them. 'Going to Brazil was very important for the players and coach to try to come up with a playing style. We might have not played any strong games there but I believe that the confidence of the players has grown tremendously,' he said. While in Brazil, South Africa played a 1-1 draw against Paraguay.

The Bafana Bafana team with locally-based players is undergoing training in Germany. There has been a lot of things said about South Africa, with coach Parreira showing his displeasure about lack of quality in friendly games.

A game against North Korea was secured last Thursday night and another friendly is coming up against China on Wednesday.

To most commentators, these opponents do not provide a stern test. Once again Mlambo remains confident. 'These games are a starting point and I believe that we will have a strong team by the time the games kick- off,' he said.

He stated that SuperSport channels will provide spectators with full coverage of the event. He said that there will be a 24-hour coverage. 'We will be bringing the games on High Definition (HD).

'I know most people do not know what HD means, but this is coverage of high quality.  We will bring top quality experts into the studio,' said Mlambo. The likes of Doctor Khumalo, Edgar Davids, John Barnes and Garry Bailey will be some of the SuperSport analysts.