Afcon 2013 draw

Full fixture list:

Central African Republic v Burkina Faso
Gabon v Togo
DR Congo v Equatorial Guinea
Cote d’Ivoire v Senegal
Libya v Algeria
Sudan v Ethiopia
Guinea v Niger
Sierra Leone v Tunisia
Mozambique v Morocco
Cape Verde v Cameroon
Zambia v Uganda
Liberia v Nigeria
Ghana v Malawi
Zimbabwe v Angola
Mali v Botswana

The first-legs will be played on the weekend of September 7-9, while the second legs are scheduled for the weekend of October 12-14.

Info: Soccer Laduma. http://bit.ly/RpUP7f

SA given the nod to host AFCON 2013

Mzansi ya rocka for sure!

Earlier today, South Africa was granted the opportunity to host the 2013 Africa Nations Cup Tournament in Cairo, Egypt. This is the second time Mzansi will get to host Africa’s prestigious tournament.

The decision to hand the rights to us comes after Libya agreed to swap hosting rights with South Africa due to the North African country marred by political unrest.

South Africa was meant to host the tournament only in 2017, however, with the infrastructure already in place and coming back fresh from successfully hosting the World Cup, the decision could not have been easier for CAF, the tournament organisers.

By the looks of things, we were the obvious choice even though Nigeria were hoping to grab the opportunity to welcome Africa to its shores, after they did so well in co-hosting the tournament with Ghana back in 2000.

Now that Bafana Bafana’s qualifiers to the 2012 AFCON in Equatorial Guinea hangs in the balance, hosting seems as the only way our national team will get to show face in major tournaments, if only we can rely less on others, which has been happening a lot of late, perhaps we can have a shot in claiming the title again.

For now, let’s applaud SAFA for continuing their great work and ensuring that South Africa remains firmly in the driving seat when it comes to staging big events.

Jali scoops top Pirates award

The Orlando Pirates awards took place at the Conference Centre in Boksburg last night. Here’s a simply broken down list of winners:

Andile Jali
– R150,000 for winning the Vodacom Pirates Player of the Season award and an additional R30,000 for the Online Player of the Season award.

Happy Jele
– Bagged R50,000 for the Players’ Player of the Season award.

Lucky Lekgwathi
– Pocketed R100,000 for the Chairman’s Award.

Oupa Manyisa was named most improved player.

Isaac Chansa
– Won the Adidas Golden Boot – 11 goals and the Goal of the Season award.

The club’s special award, which carries a R100,000 prize, was shared by Senzo Meyiwa, Moeneeb Josephs, Ruben Cloete, Lucky Lekgwathi, Robyn Johannes, Rooi Mahamutsa and Happy Jele.

* Info courtesy of Orlando Pirates (www.orlandopiratesfc.com)

Until next season

Firstly, congratulations to Thulani Serero for bagging four awards including the prestigious Footballer of the Year award in last night’s ABSA Premiership Awards ceremony at Gold Reef City.

I was honestly disappointed that Andile Jali didn’t win a PSL award, though he celebrated lifting the trophy with his team mates on the stage, reality is something one can ignore, can just imagine how he must felt hours after the awards.

So if it is not about contribution then what is it about? What is the panel basing their decisions upon? Just brilliance or form?

1st round:

Andile Jali and Knowledge Musona were the only two players making headlines during the first half of the season so much that one of the two was tipped to claim the Footballer of the year award…

2nd Round:

When the Mapetla-born Serero decided to raise the bar by scoring vital goals and enjoying fine form, Musona’s season took a knock when he injured his leg, he almost never fully caught on until the last few games of the league, average performances by Andile Jali resulted in Orlando Pirates dropping crucial points against Ajax Cape Town, Supersport United and Santos but was exceptional throughout. It was now Jali versus Serero.
In the end… No award.. How appalling.

Does the treble count for nothing? What’s the prize for winning the PSL title, MTN 8 and the Nedbank Cup?

This took me back to the 2006 Germany FIFA World Cup when Zinedine Zidane’s astounding performance against Brazil placed him in poll position to win the player of the tournament award, and he won it. To be honest, Andrea Pirlo had a terrific spell overall, helping Le Azzuri claim the world crown, but was voted “2nd best.” What more does one have to do?

I guess this is an worldwide pattern.

Anyway, it is not the nominees that vote but a selected few individuals who spend hours deciding on who wins. There must be some criteria they are using… Patrick Tingyemb won an award for the best goalkeeper, uhm Hans Vonk? Really now.

This is one man’s opinion, I feel Jali should have won the Player or Footballer of the year award but it wasn’t to be. To me, this implies that he didn’t do anything special the entire season, period! Yes, he got nominated unfortunately that’s not enough, especially after being so instrumental in the team and the league as a whole.

Until next season Andile, be proud and keep on working hard.

‘Hazardous’ Eden Hazard

I don’t really know much about the player nor have I seen him play, but if hype is anything to go by, then I certainly wish that Eden Hazard signs for Arsenal.

From what I’ve gathered and seen on Youtube is that the 20 year old is skillful, nifty, possesses great speed and agility; an absolute marvel to watch.

Though not as competitive as other European leagues, the French league can claim success in offering young and exceptional talent a chance to bloom; Samir Nasri, Yohaan Gourcuff and now Hazard, the names speak volumes.

Some say he’s the next Christiano Ronaldo, really? Upcoming talent… maybe, as for class… Let’s see him tackle a competitive league and decide then.

Watch the video and decide for yourself:

Well, after seeing some flashes of brilliance, it comes as no surprise that prominent English sides like Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs are hot on the Belgian’s heels hoping to secure his services.

His French side, LOSC Lille are just a single point away from securing a second league title in a row, let’s catch a glimpse of his contribution this season to date:

Played: 36 (33 starts)
Goals: 7
Assists: 9
Fouls suffered: 133

Hazard has featured in all of Lille’s matches this season, you can tell by the number of fouls he suffered that he is quite a handful to deal with, however he still needs to do more on creating goal scoring chances.

June is just around the corner, I foresee an eventful transfer period but it will all depend on who wants him the most (money’s the language all players understand). Hopefully he will find a team that suits his style and that will allow him to express his talent.

Bafana Bafana’s possible starting line-up

Let’s face it, Kenya is not an ideal opposition for Bafana Bafana to play against in preparation for a mammoth encounter against the Egyptians in South Africa next month for the AFCON 2012 qualifier.

Yeah, sure the lowly ranked Harambe Stars will want to prove a point to Africa and the world that they are worthy opponents and will look to cause a unlikely upset, however Pitso Mosimane’s boys on the other hand leave me a lot less comfortable, will they push themselves hard enough to send out a strong message to the Pharaohs or will they not even worry themselves that much about this match? Positive mentality is key – The desire to win.

Possible starting line-up

Having just one game to prepare before playing Egypt, Pitso will field a strong line-up in the first half. He will opt for South Africa’s favourite 4-4-2 formation.

Khune will get the nod ahead of Josephs, Ngcongca will start at right back with Bongani Khumalo and Aaron Mokoena central, Cloete is more likely to start ahead of Mzuvukile Tom.

The midfield will consist of Seven Pienaar and Siphiwe Tshabalala playing wide with Letsholonyane and Khuboni as the two holding midfielders. Fortunately for Mosimane, he will use this match to catch another glimpse of Davide Somma’s potential, who may lead the charges upfront with Bernard Parker, pretty predictable I must say.

In conclusion, I expect nothing less than a 3-1 victory to South Africa but knowing Bafana Bafana, complacency might come into play and what should be a high scoring match may end in a dull draw.

Otherwise, good luck to our boys, make SA proud!

Orlando Pirates

Orlando Pirates players at Orlando Stadium during their mid-week match against Vasco Da Gama. Te Buccanners won the encounter by two goals to nil.

PSL Results – Round 19

Amazulu 1 – 0 Platinum Stars
Free State Stars 1 – 0 Golden Arrows
Ajax Cape Town 2 -1 Supersport United
Mpumalanga Black Aces 0 – 1 Orlando Pirates
Maritzburg United 0 – 0 Bloemfontein Celtics
Mamelodi Sundowns 3 – 1 Santos
Bidvest Wits 6 – 0 Vasco Da Gama

UEFA Champions League Round of 16 draw

Image via Wikipedia

The UEFA Champions League round of 16 draw has been done and finalised, here are the matches:

Match 1: AS Roma vs. FC Shakhtar Donetsk

Match 2: AC Milan vs. Tottenham Hotspur

Match 3: Valencia vs. FC Schalke

Match 4: Inter vs. Bayern Munich

Match 5: Lyon vs. Real Madrid

Match 6: Arsenal vs. Barcelona

Match 7: Marseille vs. Man United

Match 8: FC København vs. Chelsea

Interesting clashes

Arsenal and Barcelona:

Arsenal’s complacency in the group stages has come back to haunt them as they were drawn against Champions League favourites, Barcelona, who recently demolished Real Madrid by 5 goals to nil.

These two teams met in last year’s Champions League quarter-final and Barcelona emerged victorious, showing great determination in both home and away matches, they will definitely look to continue where they left off.

Inter and Bayern Munich

Last year’s finalists have been drawn together and Bayern will look to revenge their defeat by the Italians the last time they met. It will be interesting to see how Inter will approach this one as Jose Mourinho and his defensive but effective tactics left to join Real Madrid, whatever the case may be, it will be an interesting final rematch.

AC Milan and Tottenham

Another Italian opposition for Gareth Bale and crew but this time, they must overcome Inter’s bitter rivals, AC Milan. AC boasts a superb attacking pool of players in Ronaldinho, Pato, Ibrahimovic, Robinho and Inzaghi but vulnerable at the back. Bale will look to continue his fine form against Italian teams but will need the help of teammates Luka Modrić, Rafael Van Der Vaart and Jermaine Defoe.

All the best to all the teams.

Who’s your money on? Bhakaniya for sure!

Image via Wikipedia

There’s not much to say, just that I’m excited to see my team Orlando Pirates take on Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium tonight, kick-off is at 20h15.

I hope that Rudi Krol will take a gamble and play Oupa Manyisa at right back, even though that is not his preferred position. Oupa has been doing well, it will only be fair if the coach gives him a nod ahead of Jele and Lekgwathi.

I have accepted that Mark Mayambela will not be in the starting 11, he is creative and a hard worker but he will have to change his crowd pleasing antics as Krol doesn’t seem to be a fan. Modise… Well, he has to be fielded in league matches against smaller teams. If I was the coach, I would opt for Otorogu and Mashego upfront if not Chansa behind the centre forward, Mbuyane needs to take some time off and prepare for his wedding.

Krol, please be more adventurous in the midfield, take chances and don’t take long to make changes, at least work towards making the team play and not protecting your job.

Tshisa Bhakaniya!