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Cape Town prepares for World Cup launch party

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by TRAVIS CLARK

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – For the residents of this city, and the nation of South Africa, December 4 has been a long time coming. Ever since the nation was named as the 2010 World Cup host country back in May 2004, extensive work has been undertaken to ensure that the country would be ready six years later. Now with the draw set to take place, it's all systems go as the 32 nations will know their opponents shortly.

With the draw, the party in South Africa will officially commence. The backdrop of the draw is an extraordinary part of the world, nestled on the southwest corner of the African continent. A picturesque landscape hugs the city, with Table Mountain in the near distance behind Green Point Stadium — the cornerstone of the city's World Cup display, that will play host to group matches just under 200 days from now.

Cape Town is bustling and ready to fire up the party. For those unable to make it into the draw itself, a massive street party is scheduled to air the event to a viewing public. The celebration is expected to last late through the evening, officially ending at midnight, but will likely extend further into the night.

South African fans are eagerly awaiting to hear the Bafana Bafana's group opponents, as the hosts hope to avoid the indignity of becoming the first host to fail in securing group stage qualification. While they have gone through tumultuous times and even poorer results of late, after just one day here it's clear that an entire nation will be united in supporting the team — vuvuzelas in hand, urging their players on towards victory.

There are plenty of questions that can only be answered during the tournament itself. One of the country's biggest challenges is a staggering unemployment rate, which in turn leads to the high crime levels seen. That can't be solved overnight, but travelers to the tournament won't want to worry about that. Transportation is another issue, as a rail system meant to aid travelers failing to meet deadlines. Airports have undergone extensive renovations, but will it be enough to keep the 400,000 expected visitors moving along smoothly? And what about the stadiums themselves? What will become of them after the 64 games have been played out?

Much has been made of stadium controversies, work stoppages, that have plagued the steps taken towards 2010. And like the challenge of overcoming apartheid, there's no simple way to solve the problems of poverty and high crime levels in the short time left.

Even with those problems, next summer's World Cup will be like one never seen before. Hosted by a nation that is still carving out an identity after a long and oppressive time of apartheid, and is just 15 years old. Inspired and led by Nelson Mandela to this point, the burgeoning nation is out to add on to a young legacy. And Cape Town will be sure to start the party in style.

Comments

  1. I see this claim that no host nation has ever been eliminated in the group stage repeated everywhere. But wasn’t Japan eliminated in the group stage in 2002? They were co-hosts with South Korea right?

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  2. Does anyone know the history of these things. I don’t see how the fan-culture of African football could be dominated by plastic trumpets. Being one of the greatest musical cultures in the world, you would think they’d have a lot more to offer. I hate to be culturally biased, but surely there are South Africans that find those things as annoying as I do. That being said, I don’t think that FIFA should outlaw them, but I don’t have to like them either.

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  3. It’s part of the culture guys. You don’t ask Barbados not to have steel drums or other countries that use drums or horns. While they are annoying I feel like the best compromise would have been to let them be used when South Africa played. If its part of their fan culture it should be honored at the greatest stage. Diversity is a good thing in football.

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  4. Yeah, that’s the thing. I love hearing the rise and fall of the crowd as the game goes on. The way it matches the intensity of the play is really cool, and one of the best parts of watching an intense World Cup match. Like when a team goes on a breakaway, I love how you can hear the fans get on their feet and get louder and louder.

    With those horns, you just hear a constant, inhuman buzz — at the same intonation — the whole time. There’s nothing passionate about simply blowing into a tube for 90 straight minutes. There’s a reason some leagues around the world have banned airhorns or those party favor clicking things. It’s annoying and off-putting.

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  5. Technical question–ever since ives went to this new format with the avatars in the comment section, I have not been able to view comments on my blackberry. Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions? And don’t suggest that I get an Iphone!

    (SBI-This is a browser issue for some phones (including my Storm). What’s odd is that I actually was able to see the avatar comments on my phone at first, but I think I changed some setting on it. I hope to have an answer for how to fix this soon.)

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  6. I watched the 2006 draw on youtube and the actual ceremony took a little over an hour with the drawing of the plastic balls taking about 50 minutes or so.

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  7. I dig it that K’naan, a Somali-Canadian has the official song of the World Cup. It’s about as close as we’re going to get to a world cup anytime soon.

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  8. Yeah, it doesn’t matter who will be announcing the matches because I’ll have the sound turned down because of the vuvuzelas. Useless. Totally drowns out any fans who are actually cheering.

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  9. It was sounding just fabulous until you mentioned those damned vuvuzelas. South Africa is a beautiful place, and Cape Town a beautiful city; but I’d move the World Cup someplace else just because of those things alone.

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  10. Commentary and analysis. ESPN will have several people in Cape Town, Martin Tyler in London, and the remainder of their soccer analysts in the ESPN studios.

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  11. I THINK I heard on CNN Int’l that the actual draw will take about 15 minutes and start about 45 minutes after the hour. That would be 9:45 Pacific.

    I have no idea why ESPN would allocate 3 hours. Are you sure you are reading that correctly?

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  12. Does anyone know the schedule for the draw? I know espn starts at 9am-noon pacific, but the draw doesn’t take 3 hrs obviously. Will it be just show until 11am? Or is it all mixed in throughout?

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  13. Must say I’m a bit dissapointed Ives.I was expecting full match day commentary of the season premier of “Jersey Shore”

    haha just messing =D

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