The tall defender Matthew Booth is the only white player in South Africa’s national side. The crowds at South Africa’s matches are overwhelmingly black. Booth, who plays for local club Mamelodi Sundowns, is back in the national team after a long absence. When Booth touches the ball, you can hear sounds of “Boooooootttt.” Booth, who plays for local club Mamelodi Sundowns, is back in the national team after a long absence.
But as Mark Gleeson (probably the most knowledgeable reporter on African football) writes on the Reuters Soccer Blog, some foreign reporters (and visitors) think the crowds are booing Booth:
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The Classics: Italy vs Zambia, 1988
In the 1960s African teams were not taken seriously by FIFA, which denied them a single guaranteed place in the World Cup finals until 1970. Yet African sides performed well in Olympic football tournaments. Ghana reached the quarterfinals in 1964 and Nigeria drew with Brazil in 1968. But most impressively, Zambia demolished Italy 4-0 in 1988. Led by Kalusha Bwalya—the greatest Zambian player ever—Chipolopolo (The Copper Bullets) proved that African national teams could hold their own on the world’s stage. Tragically, many of the stars of that game died in a plane crash on 27 April 1993.
Read the report about the plane crash here. Football historian, Paul Darby, has written about these tragic events in a book about disasters.
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Robinho showboats
In a video posted online today Brazil’s Robinho clowns around during team practice before Thursday’s semi-final match against South Africa in the Confederations Cup. Brazil are favorites to go through to the final, where they’ll most likely play against Spain.
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Obama’s going to the World Cup
Barack Obama plays basketball and is a fan of the Chicago Bulls. More recently he has taken an interest in soccer. He’s a fan of his daughters’ soccer teams. (That’s him cheering them on at a field in Washington D.C.) Then there’s the story that Obama attended a West Ham game while visiting Britain six years ago. (Enough, by the way for Hammers fans to claim he is a loyal supporter.)
Obama also supports the US bid for the World Cup for 2018 or 2022.
Now it appears Obama will attend the opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup.
Everybody is linking to this video of a young boy enjoying the Brazil-Italy game on Sunday in Pretoria.
Also on Sunday the US finally showed up against Egypt. Apparently before the match, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, Sunil Gulati, received up to 200 “mostly angry” emails demanding that US coach Bob Bradley be fired. The angry emails might be back Wednesday after night.
[NY Times]
Japanese free kick specialist Shunsuke Nakamura is leaving Celtic in Scotland for Espanyol. (Remember this freekick?)
[The Guardian]
Cote d’Ivorian international, Aruna Dindane, who could be one of the break-out stars of 2010 in South Africa (Cote d’Ivoire is on course to qualify), is leaving French club Lens for Tottenham Hotspurs in London.
[101 Great Goals]
Most African players when they go “overseas” go to Europe, or more recently, to Eastern Europe, Russia or even Asia (especially Southeast Asia). Now more are going to the United States. African representation in Major League Soccer “… has mushroomed since the league’s first season, in 1996. There were between 10 African-born players (in 2003) and 16 (in 1996) for its first 11 seasons; in the last three years, there were 28 (2007), 34 (2008) and 32 (2009).” Some of these players–like Chicago Fire defender Bakary Soumare and Kei Kamara of the Houston Dynamo for Sierra Leone–are even representing their countries in World Cup qualifiers.
[NY Times]
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The end of an era for Italy
Italy is a country ruled by old men (over 50). The economy, the government, and, yes, the football system too. This gerontocratic culture of power is crucial to understanding why the Azzurri performed so horribly in the Confederations Cup in South Africa.
Aging world champions like Cannavaro (age 35), Toni (32), Zambrotta (32), Camoranesi (32), and Gattuso (31) lacked the enterprise, motivation, and physical attributes necessary to compete at this level. New blood is badly needed. But only New Jersey-born Giuseppe Rossi (22) was given enough playing time. Compare this inclination to avoid youthful vigor and imagination to the story of Lionel Messi — a regular for Barcelona and Argentina since age 17 and 18 respectively.
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The Players: Mario Balotelli
Mario Balotelli is only 18 years old and already a key player for Inter Milan in Serie A. He’s been at Inter for 3 seasons now and is a regular in Italy’s Under-21 team. And he can score great goals. Like the one against Sweden in the European U-21 Championship last Friday (above). Balotelli has not yet played in the Italian senior side, but that’s only a matter of time. Italy played with an ageing team in the Confederations Cup and its strikers, with the exception of Guiseppe Rossi, hardly found the back of the net (the US and Egypt scored more goals then the Italians in group play). So there’s bound to be changes with the World Cup in mind.
A complete player at such a young age, “Super Mario” is confident about his own abilities: he told Goal.com recently that “One day Christiano Ronaldo will ask for my shirt.” (Also watch Balotelli’s post-goal celebration, like in the video above.) Balotelli (whose parents are Ghanaian immigrants) also shrugs off racist Italian fans. One downside: he may have discipline problems: minutes after scoring the goal above, he was sent off for a rash challenge (though it can be argued the Swedish player is quite an actor).