I'm afraid the time has run away with me since yesterday's offering. But I have to say that I have surprised myself and am really quite enjoying following the football. Well, in truth it's the peripheral stuff that I'm learning that I'm finding interesting but nonetheless the matches are proving more enjoyable than I'd expected as well.
It looked really chilly at last night's match between France and Mexico. Below freezing I think I heard them say. I've meant to comment on the mascots who accompany the teams onto the pitch before - I bet they'll remember this for the rest of their lives, and didn't they look just wonderful in their oversized yellow coats last night. And the match itself was good to watch. France, beaten by Mexico 0-2, certainly lived up to Zindedine Zidane's opinion that their side is not a team. And I've never seen such a disinterested and dispassionate manager. Mexico played really well and I thought it was a genuinely exciting game.
The other game I saw bits of was Argentina against Korea, the former winning 4-0. Fantastic. Even Maradonna's prancing around was faintly amusing. I'm glad the Korean's scored a goal. It looked as though the Argentinian defenders were getting a bit complacent (or perhaps they'd dozed off through inactivity). But the Argentinians really kept me entertained - quite a surprise (for me that is).
Apart from the football I haven't stumbled across much else of interest. Alan Shearer presented a short piece about the impact of the World Cup on the poorer S Africans but it wasn't that informative. There was a view expressed that "after the show is over it will be back to square one." I do hope that isn't the case but it's hard to see the value of the massive stadia in the long term. Awareness of the plight of the majority of S Africans is a big thing but it's down to the rest of us to make sure it's not back to square one or perhaps it will all have been wasted. There was also a comment that a ticket to one of the games would cost a week's wages. In that case, why weren't complimentary or massively reduced priced tickets allocated to some of the local people rather than to the broadcasting teams? Actually, I've no idea what a world cup ticket would cost if staged in this country in relation to the wages of the lower paid here but I imagine it's nowhere near as unachievable.
On a lighter note, I didn't know but apparently JRR Tolkein was born in Bloemfontein (the location of the Greece-Nigeria game yesterday). The BBC (in an idle moment) suggested that the manager for the "Lord of the Rings Eleven" should be Gandalf Ramsey. Made me smile, anyway.
And finally, a link to some filming done in the Cape Town area. Looks fabulous, and Gary Lineker doesn't look too bad either. Just not sure recording a sound track against the noise from a helicopter is such a great idea.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8743832.stm
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