Orange debacle

It has been masochistically fascinating watching the post-Euro-2012-exit inquisition of the Dutch football team on the BVN TV channel. Besides the fact that the tactical analysis is usually a cut above what one normally experiences on most English-language channels (witness Supersport's puerile, cliche-ridden analyses), I would venture that few nations grill their players and their coach so publically and as robustly as the Dutch do. The victims don't act defensively or hide either; they expect to be interrogated and give as good as they get.

On the greatest football teams

I have had the privilege of watching football since the mid-sixties. Over that time you develop your own opinions of what the greatest football teams were/are and why. My selection (in chronological order) is:

1. Brazil 1970
2. Holland 1974
3. Barcelona 2010-2011.

Confederations Cup effect

Something changed in South Africa this week as Bafana Bafana finally started to emulate the class of '96. For the first time since that year of optimism, the whole nation swung behind our football team. Afrikaans, dyed-in-the-wool rugby people were pulling for the little black guys in green and gold. Everybody recognised that they had played out of their skins with passion and pride, but also with refined accuracy and not a little technique. The team and its management have long been an example of shambolic organisation. Demanding bonuses on the eve of big tournaments has been a popular tactic that has not endeared them to the people.

All is forgiven. But now is the time to put proper development structures in place, to run football leagues properly, to make the game more inclusive and not the preserve of Africanists, to eject the "big men" who treat the game as their personal fiefdom. And then we'll see something beautiful...

Bikers 2

This morning I climbed the peak behind my house. It abutts the pass. Even at 07h30 the bikes were screaming up and down it. All that I should have been hearing were the breeze, the francolin and the low rumble of the town below. Instead the bikes overpowered all other sounds. Can't wait for the petrol price and peak oil to cramp their style.

Bikers

A Sunday morning blighted by the scream of motorbikes racing up the pass - continuously. Bikers = Bad; Hikers = Higher form of life.