A brief look at a World Cup venue

Some mornings you just shake your head and wonder why people bother. Take today. Having spotted an article entitled “6 Things About Rustenburg - 2010 World Cup Venue” I sat back for what I presumed would be a tour of local pubs and restaurants. The kind of useful information England or USA fans can use. Inexplicably, while there are “popular eateries” and “traditional taverns” in the area, this article fails to mention beer. Do they want fans to come or not?

Watching the World Cup through stupid glasses

You can’t move this morning without bumping into stories about the ESPN 3D service which is due to start with the opening match of World Cup 2010. Fabulous. I can’t wait to hold a special World Cup barbecue complete with 20 pairs of oversized NHS specs. My house will look like it’s hosting some obscure geek film convention minus the popcorn and Pearl & Dean adverts. Worse still, the nightmare vision conjured up here a few months back of Wayne Rooney scoring and then thrusting his Shrek face through my 32” screen will come true. OK, the technology won’t actually be available here in the UK until the World Cup, so we’ll be spared this horror for a while, but the question still remains: is this progress or another example of technology’s increasing stranglehold on the game?

Best World Cup Player of The Decade Part 2: the 1950s

This is the second in a series of posts entitled Best World Cup Player Of The Decade. Taking each decade in turn, the idea is to critically evaluate the teams and players before honouring one player for his performances during the tournaments.

Capello injures knee with wild swing of left peg

You never kick a ball like that. The posture is all wrong. Get some welly behind it and stop the mincing. That’s what the caption to this photo of Fabio Capello should have said but didn’t. No wonder he needs a new kneecap.

2010 will be a World Cup year to remember

Welcome back to World Cup Bafana Bafana 2010, the site for news and views on the road to Soccer City.

It’s 2010 World Cup year, so in keeping with Fabio Capello’s low key approach the UK press has this morning decided to say absolutely nothing new about the tournament, squads etc. It won’t last.

Instead, to ease you gently back into World Cup news here is a selection of the more unusual stories I spotted during the holidays.