Group E, projected order of finish (top two, in bold, to advance): Netherlands, Cameroon, Denmark, Japan. Comments: The Netherlands are the best nation never to have won a World Cup. They had one of the greatest teams in history in 1974 but lost to Germany. They were runners up again in 1978. The Netherlands, for a […]
Group D, projected order of finish (top two, in bold, to advance): Germany, Ghana, Australia, Serbia. Comments: Were it not for slightly top-heavier Group G this would be the Group of Death in this year’s tournament. And unlike Group G, this one has no North Korea to save the top four teams. The “worst” seeded team among these […]
Group C, projected order of finish (top two, in bold, to advance): England, United States, Algeria, Slovenia. Comments: The US and England face off on Saturday in what should be one of the marquee matchups of the tournament. The game should be quite a spectacle since Brits and Americans will be the two largest visiting […]
Group B, projected order of finish (top two, in bold, to advance): Argentina, Nigeria, Greece, South Korea. Comments: This is a pretty strong group with no real weak sibling but with each team having weaknesses.Any of these teams could advance. Any could finish bottom of the group. Argentina is led by a hero and madman […]
The travel that will culminate in my arrival in South Africa just hours before the Bafana Bafana-Mexico game starts today, though I should be able to write fairly regularly. I leave you with three World Cup-related questions to ponder: Does C’ote d’Ivoire need Didier Drogba to step in again to prevent the country from descending […]
In the run-up to the World Cup I am going to try to preview each of the groups. I leave for Johannesburg (via Addis Ababa) on Wednesday, so things might get a bit hectic. Each preview will be brief and soon enough you’ll likely be able to mock me for being very, very wrong. Most […]
This week’s New York Times travel section includes six South Africans providing advice for visitors to five different cities.
According to the official FIFA Countdown Clock there are 4 days, 18 hours, 56 minutes, and the seconds are counting until the World Cup kicks off. In the interim you might want to check out Global Post’s guide to the World Cup, Vanity Fair’s Fair Play, a photo-heavy football blog, and Pitch Invasion, which purports […]
With all of the attention being paid to the legitimately terrible British Petroleum travesty in the Gulf of Mexico it might be worth pointing out that oil spills in Nigeria surpass those off the Gulf Coast by a matter of magnitude and in the West we pay virtually no attention.
One of the reasons that I do not worry about the ANC’s stranglehold on South African politics taking the country toward the sort of one-party state that bedevils much of the rest of the continent is that there is such a vibrant, lively, and dissent-laden tradition within the ANC coalition itself. The latest contretemps involves […]
The Mail & Guardian is not thrilled with what it sees as a lack of transparency on the part of the World Cup Local Organizing Committee and is taking steps to force information out into the open.
Suspending cynicism for just a minute I have to praise France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy for his recent unequivocal assertions that Africa must be given a greater global role. Now, his remarks took place at a France-Africa summit in Nice, so it was in Sarkozy’s interest to play nice in Nice (ok — consider it a […]
Sadly, the sun will rise, the sun will set, and Zimbabwe will remain in grim political stasis. Something tells me next year’s elections won’t exactly make things better. But I had to smile when US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson put the smack down on Zimbabwean Ambassador H.E. Machivenyika Mapuranga, who […]
Last week in The New York Times Adam Nossiter told the strange saga of Guinea-Bissau’s recent coup and its chief beneficiary (and possibly its architect), José Américo Bubo Na Tchuto.
Every so often a piece such as this one appears. The argument is familiar: After (x number of years) since the end of Apartheid South Africa still (has not achieved its full potential/is failing its people/is a monumental disappointment to the ideals “we” once fought for). I am always mystified by these arguments. What sort […]