Sport

World Cup 2010 in the World’s Soccer City

The World Cup 2010 is amazing this summer as it has always been. This year, South Africa welcomes the football fans. And be sure, they’re totally ready for the amazing soccer show.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is the 19th and beginned on 11 June. It’s scheduled to conclude on 11 July 2010. Before the games started, there was an amazing opening ceremony. More than 84.000 people all around the world gathered in the Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium on Friday.

The scenery prepared by more than 1500 South African artists, dancers, musicians and performers between the ages of 6 and 60 was a great show to see. 5 Gripin Fighter jets fly over Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium. At that moment, Zolani Mkhiva, the “Poet of Africa” started to cry out: “Fellow Africans, today we rewrite the history. Because we brought the World Cup to our soil”. After that, nine drummers converged in a ring around him and 270 women in brightly coloured blankets formed behind the drummers. That was a feast!

All the dancers danced and sang during the show. Also, some of dancers replicated the calabash (African cooking pot) that Soccer City is modelled on. And of course, all the audiences go crazy with the official song of the FIFA world cup, “Waka Waka” presented by Shakira.

The ceremony was a great showcase of the music and culture of Africa. The sound of “vuvuzela” s and “matraca” s (traditional instruments of South Africa) excited all the guests.

Soon, the CEO of the Local Organising Committee, Danny Jordaan started to speak and he thanked all the visitors for their support.

Before the starting of the games, South African president Jacob Zuma made up a speech and officially opened the 2010 Fifa World Cup. So the excitement and enjoy gave it’s start!

What about the matches?

There are 32 teams qualified for the tournament. These are the countries: Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Honduras, Mexico, United States, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d’lvoire, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and New Zealand.

The venues where the games will be held were officially announced by FIFA on 17 March 2006. The list of 10 venues is like this: Soccer City- Johannesburg, Moses Mabhida Stadium- Durban, Cape Town Stadium- Cape Town, Ellis Park Stadium- Johannesburg, Loftus Versfeld Stadium- Pretoria, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium- Port Elizabeth, Free State Stadium- Bloemfontein, Peter Mokaba Stadium- Polokwane, Royal Bafokeng Stadium- Rustenburg, and Mbombela Stadium- Nelspruit.

As the rule of football, there is a great amount of money which will be given to the winners of the matches. For the beginning, all the participating teams would recieve $1 million. And at the end of the tournament, the prize money would be distributed as follows:

• $9 million – Round of 16
• $18 million – Quarter-finals
• $20 million – Semi-finals
• $24 million – Runners up
• $30 million – Winners

If you have the opportunity to get there, the hot stadiums of South Africa is calling you. But although you can’t go there, take your remote control, a cold glass of beer and French Fries, and don’t miss this perfect football exhibition!

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