2010 World Cup Soccer

2010 Host Nation Unite against crime

2007-03-07T01:11:00.000-08:00

South African citizens took a stand against crime when they picketed in Johannesburg, following the recent retraction of banking giant FNB’s anti-crime campaign.

The urban jungle became the battle field for ordinary South African’s who’ve had enough of crime and held a picket this week on one of Gauteng’s heavy-volume traffic intersections between Corlett Drive and Melrose Boulevard. While the picketers carried posters and flags to draw attention, motorists on Corlett Drive showed their support by hooting and giving the protesters the thumbs-up.

Ahead of President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address on Friday, the picket spear-headed by Bashier Omar and his fellow colleagues and residents of Melrose Arch, decided to break the silence and voice their concerns about South Africa’s ever-rising crime rate.

First National Bank dropped its multi-million Rand anti-crime campaign where they were going to prod South Africans to fight the crime scourge. Their plan was put inserts into various newspapers where citizens could write letters to President Mbeki, urging him to publicly put crime at the top of South Africa’s agenda.

“If a huge corporation like FNB can run scared, who will stand up for us?” says Omar who has been holding the protest during noon and 1 since Monday, 5 February, 2007. “We hope that the exposure will inspire others to do the same and to send a message to our beloved President to please address our concerns that crime levels are unacceptably high”, says Omar who clutches a South African flag and anti-crime posters. “We pledge our allegiance to the President and South Africa, and are pleading with him to heed the call of all South Africans, Black, Coloured, Asian and White to listen to our concerns.”
Xolani Cele, who also works in an office in Melrose Arch, expressed his concern: “We represent the majority of South Africans who are sick and tired of crime. “It’s time our government faced the fact that crime has got out of control and that something needs to be done. We don’t even feel safe in our homes anymore,” “I am not anti-government or anti-Mbeki, I am just anti-crime. In fact, I am very patriotic and this is why I have decided to take a stand,” he says.

The organization VIRSA are organizing a National March on the 10 of March, that will allow South Africans to forward their grievances to Government by way of petitions and by marching in an appropriate and law abiding way.

So why do soccer players fake injury?

2007-03-07T01:10:00.000-08:00

By Lady Luck

On-the-field bluffer or off-the-field budding ‘star-in-the-making’ – let’s leave the acting to Hollywood, they are after all the real drama queens!

If you thought that the best actors and actresses in the world are restricted to Hollywood, Nollywood and Bollywood; think again. They actually reside on the other side of the white picket fence, where the grass is really greener. A soccer field, their stage, and free reign to improvise on the script, their blossoming acting careers seem to be a little too perfect.

These so-called ‘actors’ are professional soccer players, also known as footballers, who fake injuries to get a free penalty kick for their team. It usually happens when a player loses the ball to an opponent. Their natural instinct is then to flop on the pitch, as if the victim of a horrible foul that appears to have caused a career-ending injury. The player will grab his ankle or head in a state of theatrical paralysis until the referee stops play, and orders that the player be carried off the field on a stretcher. The injury lasts precisely as long as it takes the stretcher to reach the touchline. Once off the field, the player bounds out of the stretcher, fully recovered, and ready to rejoin the game at the next opportunity.

So why is it so tempting to throw caution to the wind and just fake it? Well for the same reason poker player’s bluff – they don’t have the goods and they somehow have to trick their opponents or the referee into thinking they have. While soccer players fake injury because their acting could be rewarded by a penalty from the referee, with poker it’s a completely different ball game.

When poker players bluff, it means that they bet or raise with an inferior hand, or with a hand believed to be inferior. While it may seem like a good idea to bluff your opponents with a poker face, most players will find that bluffing isn’t really the way professional poker players make a living. Just ask James Bond what happened at the poker tables in the latest Casino Royale movie.

While you might argue that you’ve seen poker professionals make huge bluffs and get away with it, like those that can be viewed on this WSOP footage; poker pros have a different bluffing strategy.
A pro will loose the minimum on a bad hand because they are disciplined to stick to solid fundamentals and not get caught in dangerous situations. Their aim is to steadily increase their chip stack with minimal risk and to not lose their entire stack on one hand.

At the 2006 World Cup, the Italian soccer team coined the phrase ‘give him an Oscar’ with all the flopping they had going on. There’s even a video depicting how the Italian player’s practiced their famous swan dive.

If you’re caught in the act of faking an injury on a soccer field, you risk receiving a red card, and being sent off the field. On the other hand poker players who get caught bluffing, risk getting a certain reputation, and loosing a lot of money.

South Africa the Host

2007-03-07T01:09:00.000-08:00

Come June 2010, the eyes of millions of visitors and billions of TV viewers will be focused on the southern tip of Africa for the FIFA World Cup.This is the first time that the word's premier sporting event will be held on African soil.

9 Cities (Joburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Rustenburg, Nelspruit & Polokwane) will host the game in world class stadiums. One of the stadiums - 'Soccer City' will be able to host 104 000 football fans! The opening matches and the final will happen in this magnificent stadium.

South Africa's football squad Bafana Bafana (the boys, the boys) automaticly qualify for the World Cup and they will be coached by the talented Carlos Alberto Parreira, who led Brazil to Footbal victory 2 World Cups ago