The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ begins on Friday when the tournament hosts take on Group A rivals Mexico in the magnificent surroundings of Soccer City in Johannesburg, the first match to be staged at this impressive arena.
No host nation has ever lost their opening game in the world finals. Though this is new territory for the South Africans, the Mexicans have had the honour of opening up the competition on four previous occasions (1930, 1950, 1958 and 1970), although they failed to win any of those games.
Asked to name whom they will be rooting for during the competition, unsurprisingly 63 per cent responded “South Africa”, followed by Brazil (11 per cent) and England (4 per cent). Strong optimism in the national side, Bafana Bafana, is reflected in respondents’ answer to who they think will win the trophy: five-times world champions Brazil (37 per cent) were cited as favourites, followed in second place by South Africa (13 per cent) and Spain (8 per cent). 13 per cent see South Africa reaching the final, while 22 per cent believe their nation will not make it past the group stage.
Similar to the previous waves, the majority of respondents maintain high expectations in terms of the potential long-term benefits of hosting the FIFA World Cup, both tangible and intangible: 89 per cent believe it will leave a lasting legacy and be remembered fondly over generations, 80 per cent feel it will unite the people of South Africa, while 93 per cent believe the images of the country beamed out across the world will lure more tourists in future.
But when asked to predict who's the winner is going to be I would say Mexico because
they have proved themselves over the years to be a very strong side.
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