Disguised as the Duke of Edinburgh I ducked through security at Cape Town’s No. 1 Radio Station, 94.5 K-FM, for an audience with Benito. Benito is the man responsible for caffeinating Cape Town’s morning airwaves. What did Benito think of Bafana Bafana’s chances?
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Uruguayan Ultras Descend on Cape Town II
…with the blessing of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Tauriq, a classic Cape Town coffee and football connoisseur, shares his reaction to the announcement of the Bafana Bafana squad this morning. In brief, Josephs and Walters edge out Fernandez for the goalkeeping positions. Booth is in. McCarthy is out. And no room for “The Scooter”. Take it away, Tauriq…
I found Tauriq manifesting at Java Lounge at 39 Kloof Street, home of the tightest expresso and the most compassionate and merciful cappuccino you will find anywhere in Cape Town (and the best place to get your wireless action between games).
Everyone in Cape Town has a favourite player. But what about Bafana’s team chemistry? I posed the question to a Cape Town chemist.
Hopefully the World Cup will shine the light on South Africa’s rich football history. Like the story of of Simon “Bull” Lehoko, a star defender of the 1970s and 1980s with Vaal Professionals and Kaizer’s Chiefs. In this video profile by journalist Leoni Marinovich (for the Twenty Ten project), Lehoko talks about the annual “multi-racial matches”–specifically the 1981 edition–arranged between the White XI and African XI as a sign of political “reform.” It was all politically dubious and some of the white players were often openly racist, but the players enjoyed these match ups. And saw in them what could have been. So did some white football fans.
The “Makarapa” was invented by Alfred “Magistrate” Boyoli. Boyoli’s mate was hit by a bottle at a Kaiser Chiefs match some years ago. It was this bit of football hooliganism that inspired Boyoli.
For the record, I remember Liverpool supporters wearing red and white hard hats emblazoned with sticky Liver Birds to away games back in the day, when bottles, sharpened coins, darts, golf balls with nails hammered in ’em, and piping hot steak and kidney pies were regularly hurled at matches throughout England.
Boyoli’s genius has been to elaborate with the addition of cut out players and patterns, with places to fly all your paraphernalia. The Makarapa promises to be one of the great fun features of the world cup.
I will leave it to Lusanda, a co-conspirator in the cyber world of football, to tell the story.
Is this the end of the Jester Hat? We can only hope!
This weekend football authors Simon Kuper and David Goldblatt published the kind of book reviews that warm an author’s heart.
“Nobody understands the background to African soccer better than the Italian-American historian Peter Alegi,” writes Kuper in the Financial Times. “This World Cup is his moment. His African Soccerscapes crams daunting erudition, gleaned over many years of study of African football, into under 200 pages of history.” Click here to read Kuper’s review.
In The Observer, Goldblatt wrote: “Peter Alegi’s African Soccerscapes is simply the best available overview of the history” of the game on the continent. Click here to read Goldblatt’s review.
Given the good news, today seemed like a perfect day to go to Durban, pick up our World Cup tix and spend the afternoon playing beach football.