Many observers inside and outside of South Africa worry whether the country will be able to pull off the Fifa World Cup in 2010. South Africa will be fine. There will be occasional stumbles, and the masses descending on South Africa will have to deal with periodic glitches that might frustrate those expecting another Germany, but the country will do a good job presenting the best of South Africa to the world.
But perhaps more pressing for South African football fans is whether or not their national team, Bafana Bafana, will be ready after several years of crushingly disappointing seasons. Their 3-2 victory Wednesday over highly touted Cameroon in the Nelson Mandela Challenge, their fourth straight international win, sends signals that the national program might be headed in the right direction in the run-up not only to 2010, but also to the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup, which the South Africans will also host as a trial run for 2009.
