Snoeker

From looking at the highlights, good to see Frank Sinclair is as crap as always. Wish he was still at Chelsea.

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Mphela from SA, should be cheap also the big CB Khumalo.

Torres lost 10 mill of value tonight maybe we should keep him...

Hi all, yet another WC thread but seeing the initial one has transmogrified into the mother of all match threads... As a local, I'm keen to hear what your on the ground experiences in SA have been. 4 of us drove out to Port Elizabeth (from Cape Town) for Germany-Serbia. Game was entertaining (Germans missing a penalty!?) but the outstanding thing was how well arrangements worked. We arrived at the Park and Ride 2 hours before kickoff and after less than 20 mins in a queue (which after that started lengthening appreciably) got into a bus. about 15 mins or less drive to stadium and inside pretty easily. Post game was similar, walked to bus stop, straight onto bus and at car painlessly. I understand that certain other venues have suffered from grid-lock. Oh, and the vuvuzelas... I had earplugs, didn't use them during the game and not much of an issue, really.

We stopped at a burger place last night en route back to Cape Town from the Germany - Serbia game and watched about 20 mins of the England game. Four of us trying to figure out if Lampard was actually on the pitch in that time only ended when he had that shot that Algerian keeper saved.

I can only think that the yellow card for profanity in that warm up game gave him food for thought and that it is such a part of his game that he can't play and NOT swear simultaneously.

unhappiness is transferring Higuain out for Messi before the former hits a hat trick after resembling Heskey in game 1.

A mate who's laid hand on the ball mentioned a fair amount of texture (ridges and so on) on the surface - could it be that the new surfaces of the boots these days with their dimples and so on are interacting similar to the effect of a grooved golf club and dimpled golf ball? If so, I expect Xabi to come up with some stonking backspin sooner or later.

Ahem - Dec 2009...

That's true, ask the Bulls Altitude is also moot - Swiss and some other teams had a high altitude base... Its laziness, I reckon.

sorry for new thread but this discussion was getting lost in WC thread... I have no sympathy for those "struggling" with the ball. Sure, it acts up at altitude. But this ball was launched in December 2009. You're telling me the likes of Casillas who earn (depending on which google result you believe) 5 million euros can't pop out (or send their agent) to buy a match ball that costs less than 200 euro and practise with it for a couple of hours a week? They are so called professionals. If any one of us that have real jobs had an inkling that in 6 months time there would be a once in four year spectacle that required the use of an improved technology for us to perform optimally, we would at least have dabbled in said technology. Its a fecking football. they are footballers. duh. “The ball is dreadful. It’s horrible, but it’s horrible for everyone.” – David James (England, goalkeeper) “The ball is a problem. You can’t anticipate which direction it is going to go in. It is difficult for defenders to deal with and you can’t take your eye off the ball until the very last second.” – Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Japan, defender) “The new ball is not decent, not just for goalkeepers but for everyone. Its trajectory is unpredictable.” – Gigi Buffon (Italy, goalkeeper) “It’s very weird. All of a sudden it changes trajectory on you. It’s like it doesn’t want to be kicked. It’s incredible, it’s like someone is guiding it. You are going to kick it and it moves out of the way. I think it’s supernatural, it’s very bad.” – Luis Fabiano (Brazil, forward) “It’s like a beach ball.” – Claudio Bravo (Chile, goalkeeper) “It’s terrible… like a ball you’d buy in a supermarket.” – Julio Cesar (Brazil, goalkeeper) “Maybe they should stop trying to keep developing the ball and just change the look of it. The ball goes all over the place.” – Seigo Narazaki (Japan, goalkeeper) “It’s a little sad that in a competition as big as the World Cup to have such a poor ball. It’s not just the goalkeepers complaining, but the outfield players as well.” – Iker Casillas (Spain, goalkeeper) “It’s a catastrophe. I played with many different balls, some of which wiggled or changed directions, but this one is the worst of them all.” – Vladimir Stojkovic (Serbia, goalkeeper) “It’s a disaster… It moves so much and makes it difficult to control. You jump up to head a cross and suddenly the ball will move and you miss it!” – Giampaolo Pazzini (Italy, forward)

perhaps you should also give Cahill a free vuvuzela and a lollipop. His sending off is pure Karma.

SA league, international friendlies vs all comers. You can only play who's in front of you. And he has a lot more skill than Riise ever had.

Ok, I've thought this for a while now but Tshabalala could definitely improve our left side. He's been consistently showing that form for two years now. Khune has a great future as well. Of the Mexicans... Marquez would be good.

I like the sound of that. We need a win to qualify.

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is anyone doing the Fifa one?

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To be fair that is not one of the World Cup stadiums used and thus the security etc would not have been as rigourously planned. There's also a large Nigerian contingent in Joburg (and locals in a township would go nuts at the chance to see live international football for free and the country is going nuts with World Cup fever at present) and I read somewhere that 25 000 people pitched. So the genius who made the entry free made an error of judgement.

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