The CNN back story: Covering the cup
It's June 21 already, are you kidding me? I landed in Johannesburg on June 4 and I simply can't believe two weeks have passed so quickly.
My job here is mainly to schedule and produce our presenter's live shots, and we've so many of them that the days just blow by like as quickly as the winter wind at Soccer City.
McDowell's victory was another 'special' moment
In recent weeks, I've been more than happy to witness a couple of important sporting successes for the British Isles.
I was on hand for the recent ICC World Twenty20 cricket event in the Caribbean and was in Barbados for the final which saw England beat the Aussies very comfortably indeed.
If I enjoyed that, then what I've just witnessed at the U.S Open golf this week at Pebble Beach in California was truly special too.
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Posted by Filed under: Golf |
Heads should roll for France farce
The time bomb had been ticking… it was just a matter of time before it exploded.
Unfortunately for French football fans, the explosion occurred during the World Cup, the biggest stage of all, and as a result the revolution has been televised.
Why Wimbledon is better than the World Cup
London, England - With all the hype surrounding the World Cup in South Africa, it is easy to forget that there are other major sporting events taking place this summer. Wimbledon, the world’s oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament, has found itself unfortunately sandwiched into the middle two weeks of the biggest sporting competition on the planet.
However, officials at the All England Club have declared the Championships a soccer-free zone, choosing to show only tennis on the venue’s big screen during the June 21-July 4 event. There will be no screenings even of any of England’s World Cup matches which may fall during the Wimbledon fortnight.
The decision is unpopular - but the fact is that tennis deserves to remain the center of attention during its own tournament. Tennis doesn’t need to try and compete with football, but if it did, it would surely win hands down. Here are five reasons why.
It's no longer all about the Tiger
I always knew the golfing landscape had changed but this week at the season's second major the U.S. Open I experienced it first hand.
There was a time when the incessant buzz in the media center at these kind of events was all about not whether Tiger Woods was going to win but by how many.
How those times have changed! Of course, the American can instantly point to the fact he's still world number one (though Phil Mickelson's closing in on him fast) but there's no doubt the man who once dominated the majors and the build-up to them has been upstaged somewhat.
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Posted by Filed under: Golf |
Armchair diary : The first week’s ramblings of an exhausted fan
CNN Hong Kong Operations Supervisor Matthew Booth will attempt to watch every match from South Africa on television. Can he do it without being fired/divorced/committed to an asylum? Follow his updates here, as he becomes more and more incoherent from extreme sleep deprivation
Hong Kong, China - So my wife Veronica has started feeding me multivitamins to keep me alive.
"I don’t want to spend our post-World Cup holiday in Malaysia with you sick and asleep."
Fair enough.
The first week of my TV watching epic has passed in a bit of a spongy blur. It feels like a long time since Robert Green decided to give the Americans a sporting chance, since the Germans became the first ones to work out how a jubulani works, and an age since the Swiss showed Beckenbauer what a brilliant idea ‘kick and rush’ can be. What a week it’s been.
Elephants are soccer giants
Knysna Elephant Park, South Africa - The real giant of soccer isn't Ronaldo, Kaka or Messi - it's Namibia, a four-ton orphaned elephant with serious dribbling skills and a placid temperament unlike many of the stars on the human fields.
At the Knysna Elephant Park in South Africa, orphaned elephants have been kicking a soccer ball for years. This year the playing pachyderms have gotten into the spirit of the World Cup.
It's not just fun and games, though. "It's cognitive development therapy for them," says park manager Greg Vogt. "Soccer and playing with the soccer ball brings in an element in the relationship between each of the handlers and the elephants. Every elephant is an individual, a specific personality and every handler has his own personality."
FIFA in no-win game over mini-dresses
Johannesburg, South Africa - If FIFA really wants to stop unofficial brands from getting publicity at the World Cup, it should consider relaxing its approach off the pitch.
By detaining and questioning 36 young women for wearing orange mini-dresses, FIFA has given a Dutch beer company exactly the exposure it was seeking. The ambush marketing exercise has made headlines worldwide. It was even front page news for one South African paper.
No-one would be talking about this now if FIFA had simply ignored the women. Two of them could end up in jail. Criminalised for wearing a bright, short dress; imprisoned, alongside murderers and rapists. What good would that do?
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Posted by Filed under: Football |
Shock, horror… the vuvuzela goes global!
Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN) - The vuvuzela – the plastic South African trumpet whose loud rasp has become synonymous with the 2010 World Cup – has proved a phenomenal success with soccer fans attending the tournament.
For many, this development has not been a good thing. While the troublesome trumpet does bring a new, authentically African vibe to the spectator experience , many complain it is at the expense of other enjoyable facets of the match-day atmosphere.
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Posted by Filed under: Football |
Kids play most southerly World Cup
Struisbaai, South Africa - Struisbaai seems as long way from gleaming stadiums of the World Cup. The Southern tip of Africa is known as the Cape of Storms and its living up to its name.
Icy rain cuts into the skin and waves pound the rock outcroppings of this bleak and beautiful coast. But here, at the foot of the continent, the World Cup spirit is alive.
