hertenberger.co.za

Last night saw the final matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifications take place. With South Africa qualifying automatically due its status as the host country, 31 other teams have secured their place in next year’s tournament. On 4 December, the official draw will take place in Cape Town to allocate 4 teams per group with 8 groups in total. The draw will dictate when and where individual teams will be playing and enable fans to make final travel arrangements.

Here are the teams, based on their geographic region:

Africa – 6 teams

	Algeria
	Cameroon
	Ghana
	Ivory Coast
	Nigeria
	South Africa

Asia – 4 teams

	Australia
	Japan
	Korea Republic
	Korea DPR

Europe – 13 teams

	Denmark
	England
	France
	Germany
	Greece
	Italy
	Netherlands
	Portugal
	Serbia
	Slovakia
	Slovenia
	Spain
	Switzerland

North America, Central America and the Caribbean – 3 teams

	Honduras
	Mexico
	United States of America

Oceania – 1 team

New Zealand

South America – 5 teams

	Argentina
	Brazil
	Chile
	Paraguay
	Uruguay

With 231 days to go until the first game kicks off in the 2010 World Cup Tournament, our local team is in a bit of a fix. Having performed reasonably well in the Confederations Cup, in my opinion, South Africa slipped up more than once in their recent games. So much so that the coach has been sacked.

Bafana Bafana lack international experience as a team, that much is clear. Their primary weaknesses are a shoddy defensive lineup and an inability to score when presented with an opportunity to do so. The midfield performs reasonably and individuals in the team are more than capable of giving their counterparts in other national sides a run for their money.

With the introduction of new leadership and a possible new coaching style so close to the main event, it’s unlikely that South Africa will be able to remedy all their shortcomings in time. Looks a bit like an uphill battle to me…

Preparations for the FIFA 2010 World Cup tournament are ongoing. There are only 240 days remaining until South Africa hosts one of the world’s most-watched and anticipated sporting events. For residents of this fine country, those 240 days mean more and more frustration on the nation’s roads as construction work continues, primarily the expansion of the ring road around Johannesburg to accommodate multiple lanes. Frenetic activity to make sure all venues, hotels, shopping centres and the like are completed in time to welcome visitors. In the end, such small sacrifices for an improvement in our infrastructure are certainly worthwhile.

And then, a rather nerve-wracking weekend during which a batch of important matches took place that would decide which teams would go forward to compete in the actual event. With our first attempt at a ticket purchase having been thwarted, we tried again during the non-draw ticket sales and were rewarded with a team-specific set of tickets to follow Germany. Six games, no less, from start to the semi-finals. The Germans performed well, but had some strong competition from a decidedly tenacious Russian team who were competing for a place in the tournament. Saturday’s game would be a make or break: for the German team, the possibility that they would not be visiting South Africa. For holders of the team-specific tickets and fans alike, the possibility that our team wouldn’t make it loomed large. Funny how sport can become a serious affair when one has something to lose…

It took 34 long minutes for Klose to get the ball after a great combination from his team mates. From eight meters away, he plugged the ball neatly past the Russian goalkeeper.

Though the single goal would suffice, the Russian onslaught never let up. A bout of nervous twitching from all of us watching the game after a German player was sent off for a foul with about twenty minutes to go.

A very long twenty minutes, that finally ended with the certainty that our team has made it through and will be competing in 2010.

The excitement of the qualification matches mirrors in many respects the excitement of the actual tournament. Anything can happen. Any team can either fail or succeed. Fans agonize and rejoice. And even once a victory has been savoured, a far more trying time lies ahead. Though Germany has qualified for the tournament, their time in South Africa will be a real test: they will be facing some very tough competition .

Ensconced at their local retreat, the team hopefully have the opportunity to discover some of South Africa’s splendour and its friendly inhabitants.

Maybe even be willing to part with some autographs…

2010 is almost here. Whether or not the team you’re supporting will be competing should be irrelevant. It’s the beautiful game, and it’s coming to South Africa!

I’m looking forward to it!

If you’ve read this far, I’m impressed There’s a competition going on at Shine2010 – if you liked this post, do me a favour and rate it. Click the image below. Thanks!

It pays to persevere or at least try again. The possibility exists that ticket sales for 2010 are not going so well. I’m not too sure. In any case, I was pleased to hear that we finally managed to purchase tickets for next year’s tournament. Our attempt in the first round draw for tickets in the team-specific ticket (TST) category was unsuccessful, probably because TST7 includes tickets to the final.

With no luck in the draw, the open ticket sales proved to be the next best opportunity. Indeed, we managed to secure tickets in the TST6 category to follow Germany (I just checked – those tickets are no longer available). We’ll be doing without the final, but that was a slim chance to begin with – six games will take us to the semi-finals. Let’s hope the Germans will join us…

Whilst the online ticket purchase is a seamless experience, my biggest bugbear is the stranglehold both FNB (as the official banker) and VISA (as the official credit card) have on the cash held in trust by them for the initial draw.

To enter the draw, full payment for all requested tickets is required. In exchange, a personalized FNB Visa Official Mascot Prepaid Card is provided. An unsuccessful attempt means the money stays in the bank. Try paying online for your ticket order during the next phase: no chance to use the Prepaid Card. No chance of transferring the cash from that Prepaid Card to anywhere else either, according to FNB staff. Their best advice is to withdraw cash from an ATM using the card, with a limit of ZAR 2000 per day applied. No problem if the amount in the account is less than ZAR 2000, but certainly impractical and expensive when considering amounts in excess of ZAR 50,000! Furthermore, to gain access to the cash when withdrawing from the bank requires a round of FICA accreditation, an odd requirement, considering the account and ticket application requires positive identification…

How much money the sponsors make out of their sponsorship is never revealed, and one will always hear stories of huge investment and cost. Forcing customers into fee payments that are bogus is a clear indication that money can be made, by fair means or foul.

In the meantime, here’s Alexander‘s countdown to 2010.

Sunday saw the final game being played in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup tournament. Overall, the tournament was a huge success, proving without doubt that South Africa is more than capable of hosting international events.

I attended two games, one in Ellis Park in Johannesburg and one at Loftus Versveld in Pretoria. The two major issues I found detracted from the overall experience was related to huge traffic volumes blocking the way to the park and ride locations. Once there, things were very well organized and signposted with ample parking available. Though there were always long queues waiting for buses to get to the stadium, overall waiting times were not long and the bus trip to the stadium short.

Getting into the stadium and finding one’s seat was generally no problem. Gaining access to the beer of the tournament, Budweiser, took forever. Long queues and a rather ridiculous process of emptying the contents from glass bottles into plastic cups. That takes way too long and is inefficient. Also, Budweiser tastes like crap, but that’s a different story… Install a few draught taps and pre-fill as many of them plastic cups as possible pre-match, is my suggestion.

But, watching a football game should not be reliant on vast quantities of alcohol being consumed.

In my experience, crowds were very well behaved and a large police and security presence evident.

Annoying not only during the games but in queues waiting to leave the stadium, the vuvuzela.

That plastic tube is capable of an awful noise. Fine when blown in moderation during a game, but certainly a pain when blown into someone’s ear at close range. Though considered an essential part of the African football experience, chances are that the vuvuzela may be banned from the 2010 World Cup. No loss if that happens…

After the game in Pretoria, absolute chaos ensued because the crowd was not shepherded into neat little rows leading to the buses that would take them back to the park and ride facilities. With no one in control, buses were forced to stop farther and farther away from the exit and pedestrians got dangerously close to the traffic. Overall waiting time: at least two hours. The situation was far better at Ellis Park, where no one could exit anywhere other than the area where buses had their pickup point.

These organizational issues should be easy to resolve for 2010. Other issues mentioned by FIFA include a lack of accommodation and lack of a decent public transportation infrastructure. FIFA awarded a score of 75% to South Africa, not bad, I think. 80% would have been a fairer score, but we probably lost the additional 5% due to the beer fiasco…

Here’s an overview of the games and results.

Final
USA 2 : Brazil 3

3rd place
South Africa 2 : Spain 3

Semi-finals
USA 2 : Spain 0
South Africa 0 : Brazil 1

Group A
South Africa 0 : Iraq 0
New Zealand 0 : Spain 5
Spain 1 : Iraq 0
N. Zealand 0 : S. Africa 2
South Africa 0 : Spain 2
New Zealand 0 : Iraq 0

Group B
Brazil 4 : Egypt 3
USA 1 : Italy 3
Brazil 3 : USA 0
Egypt 1 : Italy 0
Brazil 3 : Italy 0
Egypt 0 : USA 3

Now, let’s get ready for the actual event: FIFA World Cup 2010!

Today marks the one year countdown to the FIFA World Cup 2010 that is to take place in South Africa.

All indications are that preparations are progressing well. The amount of construction currently underway in all major cities is astounding: new airports, new roads, new railways, upgrades to existing infrastructure and of course completion of the stadiums that will host the games.

This weekend, South Africa will be tested on the pitch and in matters infrastructure, service delivery and event hosting: the first games of the 2009 Confederations Cup kick off on Sunday.

Overall, I think that South Africa is more than ready and able to host an event of this magnitude. Only one year to go – it’ll be over before we know it.

Our ticket application for TST 7 tickets in category 2 for the FIFA World Cup 2010 has been unsuccessful…

I guess that means trying again in the next round of ticket sales, but with the first round having been touted as the one providing the best chance to get tickets it seems we’re destined to watch the tournament in the usual fashion: reclining in front of the TV with a cold beer in hand. Come to think of it, that’s not all that bad either!

It’s the last day to enter the first draw for tickets for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and, in true South African style, we’ve left it right to the last minute just to make things a bit more interesting…

A combination of four team specific tickets has been submitted along with a reasonable amount of cash that will likely earn FNB a fat bit of interest for them to recoup some of their sponsorship expenditure. The TST tickets are for us to follow , of course!

Now, we wait and see what the results of the draw will be. The draw is to be held on 15 April… Holding thumbs!

The first chance to be in line to purchase tickets for the 2010 FIFA World Cup commences on Friday. Two options are available, either by filling out an official application form or by logging on to the FIFA website.

Roughly the same process will be followed in all sales windows: provide details of matches to be viewed, provide guarantee of payment and then…wait for a notification that your name was selected in the ticket draw. All tickets will be provided only in April of 2010, so be sure to retain proof of your purchase

Opening match tickets range in price from ZAR 385 to ZAR 2233, with the finals costing between ZAR 700 and a cool ZAR 4500 per ticket. Pricing is dependent on where you choose to sit…and likely indicative of how much you’ll get to see.

I promise that this will be last post in a little while regarding some form of milestone – the past week has seen the 25th anniversary of the Mac and the 50th anniversary of the Canon SLR. Today marks the beginning of the countdown from 500 days downwards to the beginning of the 2010 World Cup tournament.

Officials are adamant that the construction projects for the various venues are on track and will be completed on time. The middle of this year will put some of that to the test when the Confederations Cup gets going as a dress-rehearsal.

Overall, there is not as much excitement in the air as I would have expected. Given the general nature of mankind, waking up to the fact of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa a day or two before the event will be the norm, I expect. So: less than 500 days to go…