Haititempo vous souhaite un joyeux noël et une bonne année 2012

World Cup update  from South Africa from a Haitian perspective

Landscape of South Africa and Botswana

SOUTH AFRICA  -  So we decided to go to Gaborone, Botswana, for a few days to visit my friend from the university. I couldn’t help but notice that the landscape reminds me a lot of Port-Au-Prince during the 5 hours drive from Jo’burg. There are mountains everywhere and they are bare. Unlike PAP, the mountains are such not because the trees were cut down to use as energy, but because the landscape in this part of South Africa is almost desert-like.
The temperature varies greatly from almost 80F during the day to probably 25F at night. Needless to say, if you go out during the day you probably will have to carry a jacket in case you plan to come home late.
One thing of particular interest to me is the burning of the tall grasses that seems to be a constant thing around Jo’burg. You can easily think you are in the middle of some wild forest if you don’t know that it was set intentionally. Apparently people here set up control burn to get rid of the tall grass during the winter so that fresh new grass can grow during the spring. It is very amazing to see almost a whole hill on fire on occasions, and impressive as well that it is controlled.
Oh yeah, we went camping last night.  I HATE IT!

World Cup Matches We Saw So Far

1) The U.S. vs Ghana match was very fun to watch.  The atmosphere was just perfect, with only one exception being the weather.  It was cold.  The stadium in Rustenburg is almost secluded outside of the city.  FIFA regulates that a 3-5 km perimeter is set up around the stadiums for all matches, and so we had to park our car at a Park and Ride outside of the city to catch a bus to the stadium.  Everything went pretty smoothly.  The American fans, with us 5 included, were outnumbered probably 3 to 1 with even the locals, and the English fans who were expecting to top the group and to take part in this game, rooting against the U.S..  With South Africa out of the WC, most South Africans are rooting for the lone representant of the continent, Ghana.
What the U.S. lacked if world class finishers as they created a lot of opportunities.  Findley’s short comings are well documented as he has speed but lack finishing.  I was not surprissed to see him replaced at the half.  Altidore on the other hand weighed heavily on the Ghana defense but he was very inconsistant.  When he was substituted out at the end of regulation and going into OT, it was obvious to me the U.S. was playing for penalty kicks after taking out their best forward.  Needless to say after Ghana scored in OT, the game was essentially over as the Americans could not recover.

2) We returned back to Jo’Burg to watch our 3rd game between Argentina and Mexico at Soccer City where the final game will take place.  The stadium is massive as it holds a little under 100,000 fans.  It is also in my opinion the best stadium we have been to so far.  It is located right on the outskirt of Soweto, the slums where if I am not mistaken Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela resided during apartheid.  We plan to get an official tour of Soweto within the next two days by the way.
It was clear to all of us at the game that Tevez’s goal by Argentina was offside.  They showed the replay once at the stadium, and the Mexicans fans just went crazy, and rightfully so.  Needless to say, they didn’t show the replay of that goal again at the stadium for fear of starting a riot. 
While I was rooting for the lone representant of CONCACAF to upset Argentina, there was no question the better team won.  Beside, you don’t deserve to win after your player basically gifted a goal, the second goal, to Argentina.

Our last game is Friday July 2nd at Soccer City between Ghana and Uruguay.  I will be rooting for Ghana to go all the way from now on, but I expect them to lose in the Quarter finals after beating Uruguay.

The Controversial Calls

By now I am sure you have heard of the controversial call against England that cost them a goal that would have tied the game against Germany.  Without a doubt this was a call that could have potentially turned the game on its head, and for once I thought that FIFA should add instant replay to the game.  The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that by adding instant replay to soccer, that would leave the door open for other calls to be questioned as well, which would in fact Americanized the game.  What makes soccer beaufitul is the subjective calls of the referrees and the constant flow of the game for 90 minutes.  No one want that to change.
What FIFA should consider in my opinion is a fourth or fifth referee who will stay behind the goal at all times to check if the ball crosses the line.  There was no way for the linejudge to properly check if the ball had crossed the line from where he was standing while also having to check if the player who shot the ball is offside, especially if this player shoots the ball from 30 yards from the goal or so.  It is simply not possible for the linesjudge to run to the endline in time to check clearly if that balls crosses the line.
The Germans would have you believe however that what happened to England is Karma biting them as in 1966 in the WC finals between England and West Germany, the very same thing happened to W. Germany who could have tied the game with a similar goal, and it was disallowed.  England went on to win the game and consequently the WC that year 4-2.

James Louis-Charles / Haititempo