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The World Cup will finally get underway today in South Africa
after six years of hard work by the continent’s southernmost nation.

In terms of organisation and planning, South Africa has proven
to the watching world that they are right up there with the best, and they look
set to prove their organisational skills when the opening ceremony begins in a
few hours time in Johannesburg.

But their national team is far from being one of the best sides
in the world, and once all the commotion of the opening ceremony is done and
dusted, the hosts, in a traditional and timely manner, will officially kick-off
proceedings while at the same time trying to uphold an age-old World Cup
tradition by qualifying for the knock-out stage of the competition.

From Santana to Parreira

And as they head into today’s World Cup opener against Mexico,
who impressed many by defeating defending world champions Italy 2-1 in a recent
friendly, the South Africans will be doing all they can to ensure they don’t
become the first host nation to crash out of the World Cup in the first round.

Their performance at last year’s Confederations Cup, where they
finished a respectable fourth, was remarkable; but they subsequently went
downhill resulting in the sack of their Brazilian coach Joel Santana. The
team’s former handler Carlos Alberto Parreira was brought in to tinker the side
and the former World Cup winning coach has transformed Bafana Bafana into one
with far more organisation, discipline and, more importantly, self-belief.

As a result, Bafana Bafana will kick-off against the Mexicans in
high spirits, after a run of 12 matches without a lose, a streak they will need
to extend by another three games if they’re to stand a realistic chance of
advancing from Group A where they will also be up against two former world
champions, France and Uruguay.

El Tri out to win

But the Mexicans won’t just sit down and roll over as they
themselves have a streak of their own to protect, having made the knock-out
stage of the World Cup in their previous five attempts. There are no doubts as
to whether or not Mexico have the quality within their squad to outplay South
Africa for large parts in today’s encounter, as they did to a certain extent
against England a little over a fortnight ago, but the problem has been
converting their dominance with possession into goals, a situation that has
seen them leaving matches with plaudits from neutrals for their attractive play
but nothing to show in terms of results.

They will have to replicate their display against the Italians today if they
hope to emerge victorious. And with Giovanni Dos Santos, with his quick-feet,
and Carlos Vela, with his enthusiastic attitude, as well as Manchester United’s
Javier Hernandez, along with the experienced Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who remains a
force to be reckoned with even at the age of 37, El Tri will be hoping to
silence the vuvuzelas of the thousands of yellow clad South African fans who
will be cheering for Bafana Bafana inside the magnificent 96,000-capacity
Soccer City.