Suspended

Get this. Middle of afternoon my emails stopped working. Internet connectivity still ok.

Get hold of the company that hosts my email system and get message that my account has been suspended because it has been hacked!!! What the *&^%$?!?

Then I get a response of what technical issues to check etc. I think I udnerstand Mandarin and Cantonese and Russian much better than that technical language. Wow.

So i passed it on to a friend who knows about the dark world of the www. Waiting and hoping now.... I've been hacked!

WC blues

Winter moves on across the post-world cup nation. But I spotted some new blossoms here and there which indicates that spring is just lurking around the corner.

Post FIFA blues. Jordaan has joined the Blatter conglomerate. Mandela Day across the globe. Bill Clinton says he wants to climb Kilimanjaro. Tutu joins former French president Chirac in a new UN AIDS body to find new ways to speed up the fight against the killing virus. Baby scandal. Rwandan elections. SAA. BP remains in the news. Toy Story 3 is out. Liverpool signs Cole. Indonesian Muslims object to devil logo on Manchester Utd shirts. Biographies from Naidoo and Goldberg. What's the Gautrain construction schedule these days? When will Rosebank station be open for biz? Mzansi Magic launched. European heatwave. Jozi is back to its usual self.

2014

Can you feel it? The cup has left the nation...

The cup as such to Madrid... Well in fact a replica cup to Spain, cause the real one (in its LV bag) always stays with the FIFA mob in Switzerland.

...And the world cup as an event has now moved on to Brazil where the next clash to grab the world champion title will be held in 2014.

Told ya...

Told ya..... Viva Espana Viva.

Euro champions in 2008 and now world champions.

And great final ceremony at Soccer City where next we'll welcome the All Blacks.

Paul vs Pauline

It's turning into underwater animal abuse.

Since the start of the worldcup Paul the octopus in Germany has correctly predicted the outcome of all Germany's games in South Africa so far by choosing the mussel in the box with the flag on of the team that would win.

All correct so far. German victories against Australia, Ghana, England and Argentina, and German defeats against Serbia and Spain. Now Paul predicts Germany will beat Uruguay tomorrow in the so called small final.

Then Paul was put to the test regarding the Holland - Spain final. A first prediction without Germany involved. Paul went for the mussel in the Spanish box and thus..... Spain will be world champion on Sunday.

The Dutch didn't take it lightly. They found their own octopus in a zoo in The Hague. A female octopus called Pauline. Same mussle trick. Pauline went for the box with the Dutch flag.

Animal rights activists should have a look at this maybe.

Visa Espana Viva

And there you have it. The 2010 worldcup final will be between Spain and The Netherlands. A clash between European brothers. Superstars Brazil can watch it on TV back home.

The header by Spanish defender Puyol last night against Germany was hardcore. Spain outclassed Germany in passing and tactical control of the game. Amazing to watch.

It's part of the beauty of soccer. It has a strong element of unpredictability. Germany cruised through the worldcup with 4-0 trashings of Australia and Maradona's Argentina, and also sending the proud English home 4-1. Amazing record during a worldcup.

Spain on the other hand started bad with a surprise loss against tiny Switzerland. Then they moved through the worldcup without convincing at all.

And now the tables are turned. Last night Spain was magical.

And thus, as I said many times, I support Spain to be crowned world champions next Sunday. Viva Espana viva.

Overloaded

An interesting read with a smell of madness.

An Argentinian sports newspaper did some digging on the income of the coaches of the 32 national teams that came to SA to compete for the golden worldcup.

Some of these gentlemen have been fired in the meantime as their team underperformed, like France and Brazil f.i.

Anyway the massive, crazy difference between some coaches is mindblowing.

Far ahead of anybody else is England's Fabio Capello who earns a wapping US$9.9million per year. That's about Rand75,500,000. Or just less than Rand6,300,000 per month. Kick that! And looking at England's play and results at the worldcup, we can honestly say: it's a joke!!!!!

Bafana Bafana's Brazilian coach Perreira comes 10th with US$1.9 million annual cash.

Italy's Lippi - another big looser at this cup - is 2nd with US$4.1 million. That's still Rand2,600,000 per month. For not winning a single game as outgoing world champion! Crazy!

The rest of the top ten are Aguirre from Mexico, who resigned in the meantime; German coach Loew, who currently is in a money dispute with the German football association; the Dutch coach is on 5th spot; Hitzfeld from Switzerland on 6th; Spain's del Bosque gets US$2.2 million; our well known Carlos Queiroz is the 8th best earner as Portugal's coach; followed by Dutchman Verbeek coaching Australia.

So of the top ten best paid national coaches, only 2 are in the semi finals. And 4 of them didn't even make it further than the group stages.

The digraced French coach Domenech is on 19th spot with US$720.000 annual income. Well no more that is.

Dunga is on the 11th spot and Maradona just behind him. The 2nd best paid coach of an African team, after Perreira, is Le Guen who coached Cameroon. Still worth just under a million US$ per year. And Cameroon got nil points at this worldcup.

Tabarez who has put Uruguay in the semi finals only gets US$300,000 annual salary. 30th Out of 32. Tell that to Capello!!!!

Euro revenge

Can't escape the world cup fever as it's crunchtime. The semis are on its way in a few days.

Friday and Saturday were hectic. Latin America came in full strength into the quarter finals with 4 out of the 8 teams coming from South America.

The quarters started with first Holland send superstars Brazil packing. Then the shock of the 120th minute in the Ghana vs Uruguay game at Soccer City. It was 1-1 and Ghana had a penalty in the last minute of extra time. But the ball hit the crossbar and went over. Unbelievable. And then in the penalty shoot out Uruguay got the upperhand. High drama. The last African team kicked out.

And Friday evening ended with some tabloid trash suspense of Paris Hilton's little illegal smoke activity in PE.

Then day 2 of the quarters. Yesterday the big Germany - Argentina clash at a packed Greenpoint stadium. The German machine just rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled. Maradona was in shock. 4-0!!! And then in the shadow of the Cape Town game came last night's match between Spain and Paraguay. Drama also here with a missed penalty by Paraguay directly followed by a penalty on the other end of the pitch for Spain. Spain's Alfonso scored the penalty but was ordered to re-take it by the referee as Spanish players entered the penaltybox area too soon (meaning before Alonso kicked the ball). So Alonso had to re-do it all. But then he missed the re-take!! Not for the weak at heart. Spain anyway took the game away later with a narrow 1-0 victory. From the 4 Latin American teams in the quarter finals only one made it through to the semis. The Latin American supremacy got slaughtered in the quarter finals. It's Euro revenge time.

It's now Holland vs Uruguay in Cape Town on Tuesday, and Germany against Spain on Wednesday in Durban. It smells like a Dutch-German final. Euro revenge till the end.

Hup Hup Holland

I said it..... Holland would beat Brazil. And so it happened. Superheros Brazil are out in the quarter finals of the 2010 world cup. Goodbye!

Next time more chance when you play on homesoil. See ya in 2014.

Tonight the streets of The Netherlands will be filled with loud, drunken cries of "hup hup Holland".