World Cup Round Up: Humble Grounds, Stadium Strike, Pele Talks

Here is an example of why I love the World Cup. It touches people on all corners of the globe and isn’t just about rich players from rich countries. The stadium pictured to the left there is in Port Villa, Vanuatu. It is the site of the upcoming World Cup qualifier between Vanuatu and New Zealand. Somehow I think the stadiums we will see in South Africa in 2010 will look slightly different than this one.

On to some of today’s stories…

The strike is official in Durban. More than 1,000 workers constructing the stadium there for the World Cup have walked off the job in a labor dispute. How long the strike will last and how it will impact the construction schedule remains to be seen. Let’s hope they get it sorted out quickly. It would suck to have a host city lost.

Stamp collectors rejoice. South Africa will release a second set of World Cup stamps in the coming weeks.

Those stamps won’t bear the likeness of any of South Africa’s players, not even the ones tapped for their upcoming friendlies against the United States and Canada. Taking a look at that list makes me wonder how in the world South Africa will even get a point in 2010. Still a long ways to go…

We now know the names of the players that will represent Ecuador in their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Peru. Missing from the list are captain Ivan Hurtado and fullback Ulises de la Cruz. Probably a good idea to shake things up after opening the campaign with a pair of losses.

FIFA VP Jack Warner is now a member of Trinidad and Tobago’s parliament. Godspeed to everyone there. You know he’ll do his best to rob the country blind.

They sing for Scotland and now the Tartan Army want their voices to be at the top of the charts. The Tartan Army rocks.

Every couple of months Pele is dragged in front of the cameras and asked his opinions about the football world. Today, he talked about Brazil’s preparations for 2014 and England’s bid for World Cup 2018 among other things. Like Romario once said. Pele is a poet when he doesn’t speak.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/07/sports/EU-SPT-SOC-Pele-Beckham.php

The Otto Pfister saga continues with word that he has indeed signed a three-year deal to coach Cameroon. If he is still coaching them three years from now I will buy each and every one of you a fancy sports car.

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