Off-the-field comments from South Africa

        Green Point stadium in Cape Town will provide a ‘sea of orange’ fans celebrating tonight, at the feet of our majestic Table Mountain.  

I really wanted to blow my vuvuzela for the little nation of URUGUAY, but I’m going Dutch today…specifically because of the hand-ball foul by Suarez against the GHANA Black Stars. My prediction is NETHERLANDS to win, 3-1.   

FIFA has a massive ‘Fair Play’ campaign and I believe they’ve let us all down by poor rules that make a mockery of this principle.   Especially for us Africans, who are hosting this greatest sporting event on earth, right here in sunny South Africa.  

Anyone who has been following my blogs for the past 3 weeks will know that I am no football fanatic and that I know very little about the nuances of the game, but I’ve viewed the clips on YouTube several times.  I’ve also read quite a lot of what has been written.   For me, it was sheer bad sportsmanship and it cost Africa a semi-final. 

Sadly, I’d been hoping for at least one strong South American team to get through to the finals, but it now looks to be an all-European affair.  Hence, I think the streets of Montevideo later will be somewhat quiet when the final whistle blows.  

My mind is not yet made up yet about SPAIN vs. GERMANY.  I’m tending towards the Germans, but I’ll only finalize my choice tomorrow.   After all, this hugely exciting game is being played right here in our city, and the streets are already buzzing with German and Spanish flags and fans, so I need to get kitted out in the winning team’s colours! 

Meantime, to the Dutch fans – the ORANGE ARMY – thank you for bringing such colour and vibrancy into our country and on to our streets.  Party hard and long tonight in the Mother City of South Africa (as we all refer to Cape Town) and then get your flags and orange hair and orange vuvuzelas and travel safely to Soccer City for Sunday’s epic clash of 2 footballing giants. 

Hasta la vista, team URUGUAY – and let’s hope you do well for Brazil 2014.

(Brian – in Durban, South Africa.)