WEll it seems as if there is a complication with the matter of the ticket sales for the friendly between South Africa and Ghana on 11 August at Soccer City.

According to the Safa Website : South Africa hosts Ghana at Soccer City on Wednesday the 11 th of August 2010. Kickoff is at 20h35 and tickets for the match go on sale on Friday 23 July at Computicket and Shoprite Checkers stores. Tickets cost R50.00 all round.

But now I see on the Bafana Bafana Official Facebook Page that : There has been a whole misunderstanding, tickets will go on sale a week before the match….we were still trying to validate what the problem was.

Ticket Sales

So Bafana Bafana Supporters in particular, and soccer fans in general, watch this space and we’ll try to keep you informed when SAFA or whoever get their act together get the right information out to the loyal supporters who want to plan their lives and who really would like to come to the game to watch the Black Eagles take on Bafana Bafana.

South Africa hosts Ghana for a friendly at Soccer City on Wednesday the 11 th of August 2010. A match up between Bafana Bafana and the Black Stars is maybe not what new coach Pitso Mosimane wants right now.

But Mosimane is a  brave man and he tells football365 that “upcoming friendly against Ghana will provide a true indication of how far the national team has come.

Mosimane once again preached about the benefits of youth development, something which his predecessor Parreira took some flak for from SAFA back in 2007.

Ghana – 2nd in Africa

“Ghana is second in Africa and 23 in the world. How did they get there? Where are we in relation to that?

“Ghana focused on development and their senior side is reaping the rewards of investing in junior national sides,” said Mosimane, who warned the nation that it is time to “fasten our seatbelts and keep our composure.”

Coach Mosimane’s Four Year Plan

Bafana Bafana Head Coach Pitso Mosimane is a man with a plan, in fact a Four -year -plan.

Coach Mosimane presented his 2014 Vision on Thursday (22 July 2010) at a media briefing held at SAFA House in Johannesburg. The vision is to prepare and build a strong, competitive and respectable team for the country in preparation for the 2012 African Cup of Nations in Gabon/ Equatorial Guinea and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Mosimane applauded the PSL for their commitment and support in accommodating Bafana Bafana’s program in the League’s calendar. Pitso Mosimane said that his continuous engagement with the League is the approach he will apply to other stakeholders in the football fraternity.

SAFA CEO Leslie Sedibe- Vision 2014

SAFA CEO Leslie Sedibe says the decision to kick off Vision 2014 with an international friendly match against Ghana demonstrates the Association’s commitment to improve the standard of South African football.

“The road to 2014 will not be an easy one. We are mindful of the challenges ahead, especially after having staged a very successful FIFA World Cup in our country. Our choice of opponents in this preparatory stage is to ensure that our players continue with the momentum of the World Cup, we are also sending a message to our team that there is no room for complacency when we face any of our opponents in the qualifiers. We must prepare adequately for Niger and Sierra Leone, just as we will prepare for the African Champions Egypt in our group,” explained Sedibe.

Bafana Bafana vs Black Stars Kickoff

Kickoff is at 20h35 and tickets for the match  at Soccer City go on sale on Friday 23 July at Computicket and Shoprite Checkers stores. Tickets cost R50.00 all round.

Ask the Octopus

Get your Paul the Octopus iPhone App (unofficial) and you will have predictions in the palm of your hand – so to speak.

It was just a matter of time before someone jumped on the very popular bandwagon of Paul the Psychic Octopus who made a string of winning predictions in the recent 2010 World Cup. Besides the vuvuzela, I think Paul the Octopus became one the the icons of this tournament.

According to Mashable, the German Octopus is back in the form of an iOS app that makes predictions about anything you want it to, not just football.

The uTouchLabs-developed app is called “Ask the Octopus” [iTunes link] and it’s available in the App Store for the iPhone , iPod touch and iPad (though it doesn’t have a special iPad version).

Ask the Octopus

Before you rush off to install this Paul the Octopus iPhone app, called Ask the Octopus, I just want to warn you that is is just a game, you are not going to get Lotto numbers or pick a winner on the sixth race. But it is fun to play with and, hey it’s quite a talking point.

A good recipe for World Cup withdrawal: install the Ask the Octopus iPhone App and the Vuvuzela iPhone App and you’ll get that 2010 World Cup feeling all over again.

After all Vuvuzela was the WORD for the 2010 World Cup.

Vuvuzela is the word of the 2010 World Cup, would you want to know it? Not Jabulani, although I think the name of the energetic ball of happiness is probably a close second or third.

No, I’m not suffering from post World Cup euphoria. I read this on the Web so it must be true.

Vuvuzela – Biggest Impact on 2010 World Cup

Linguists in more than 60 countries voted that the vuvuzela is the word “that has made the biggest impact on the 2010 World Cup, and that it will be best remembered for”.

“Long after individual matches and goals are forgotten, this will be remembered as the Vuvuzela World Cup,” said Jurga Zilinskiene, managing director of London-based firm Today Translations a London-based translation company with a network of 2, 600 linguists in over 60 countries, on Media 24.com.

“Vuvuzela” was chosen by 75% of more than 320 linguists from over 60 countries, who were asked to choose the word with the biggest impact on the tournament.

Vuvuzela Landslide Victory

Vuvuzela won a landslide victory in a survey of linguists conducted by Today Translations,

In second place was Waka, after the official World Cup song by Shakira and the South African group, Freshlyground.

In joint third place were Jabulani, the official match ball of the tournament, Zakumi, the official World Cup mascot, and Bafana, the nickname of the South African national soccer team.  (By the way whatever happened to Zakumi?

The Golden Ball nominees have been announced for the 2010 World Cup. The adidas Golden Ball is the official FIFA trophy for the “Best Player of the Tournament”.

Everybody has their favorite player, but there have been a few players who have certainly stood out during this tournament, no matter what team you have been supporting.

The ten nominated players for the Golden Ball were selected by the FIFA Technical Study Group that includes football experts such as Kalusha Bwalya, Christian Karembeu, Jomo Sono and Gérard Houllier.

Nominees for the Golden Ball

Nominees for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ adidas Golden Ball trophy are:

• Diego Forlan (URU)
• Asamoah Gyan (GHA)
• Andres Iniesta (ESP)
• Lionel Messi (ARG)
• Mesut Oezil (GER)
• Arjen Robben (NED)
• Bastian Schweinsteiger (GER)
• Wesley Sneijder (NED)
• David Villa (ESP)
• Xavi (ESP)

Accredited media representatives will vote to determine the winners of the adidas Golden, Silver and Bronze ball awards on FIFA.com. The winners will be announced after the final on 11 July.

adidas Golden Ball past winners

1982 FIFA World Cup™ Spain: Paolo Rossi (Italy)
1986 FIFA World Cup™ Mexico: Diego Maradona (Argentina)
1990 FIFA World Cup™ Italy: Salvatore Schillaci (Italy)
1994 FIFA World Cup™ USA: Romario (Brazil)
1998 FIFA World Cup™ France: Ronaldo (Brazil
2002 FIFA World Cup™ Korea / Japan: Oliver Kahn (Germany)
2006 FIFA World Cup™ Germany: Zinedine Zidane (France)

Read more about the Golden Ball  nominees  on FIFA’s Website

Image: golden Ball trophy fifa .com