Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The 2010 FIFA World Cup Draw

The draw for the 32 teams participating in the FIFA World Cup 2010 finals discovered who they were playing when the final draw took place recently in Cape Town. The opening match will be on the 11th June with South Africa drawn to play Mexico but it was the group D that caused the biggest reaction.

Here, Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana will battle it for the two qualifying places in the round - effectively putting two nations with highly passionate support together will actually depart the tournament early.

The television audience for the draw exceeded over 200 million and there were 2,000 invited guests in the hall to watch the draw and it provided not just a football draw - but a colourful and exciting spectacle for all who saw it. Famous observers included the athlete Haile Gebreselassie, rugby player John Smit, cricketer Makhaya Ntini, and footballers Matthew Booth and Simphiwe Dludlu as well as England's David Beckham who over saw the eight playing groups reveal themselves.

• Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
• Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
• Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
• Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
• Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
• Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
• Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Cote d'Ivoire, Portugal
• Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

The draw did not just attract stars from the sporting world as award-winning musician Johnny Clegg performed "Scatterings of Africa", a song made famous by the Academy Award-winning film Rain Main.
The first speech of the night was made by the former president, Nelson Mandela who at 91, spoke via a special video message urging his nation to make the most that the sporting opportunity afforded.

"We must strive for excellence in our hosting of the World Cup, while at the same time ensuring the event leaves a lasting benefit to all our people," he said. Stressing the importance of being the host nation of the tournament.

Next, two other special presidents took the stage, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and South African President Jacob Zuma both showing their excitement at both the Final Draw and the 2010 Fifa World Cup itself.

Portugal football striker Eusebio, who was born in neighbouring Mozambique, was hailed as an example of the "Win in Africa, With Africa" campaign which was showcased before the crowd and Beninese singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo also performed her Grammy-nominated song "Agolo".

In keeping further with the African theme, Academy Award-winning actress, Hollywood producer and proud South African Charlize Theron, showed off the official 2010 match ball,, made by Adidas. The Jabulani ball means "to celebrate" in Zulu. The world famous and Grammy award winning Soweto Gospel Choir sang their "Pata Pata" just as the draw master and Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke performed the draw.

The multiple Grammy Award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir continued the theme of happiness with a lively rendition of "Pata Pata" before the arrival of signaled the moment of truth.

For some of the teams coaches, there will be a feeling of heading away confident of the task ahead but for others, there will be concerns about the match produced by the draw. At least they all know who they are facing in the groups and can now begin their planning and preparation for their part in the show which is the FIFA World Cup 2010.




If you enjoyed this article and would like up to date news on the FIFA World Cup 2010, be sure to have a look here.

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