Bafana try to keep their cool

The whole of South Africa has caught the football bug, including President Jacob Zuma. Euan Megson reports

Matthew Booth, centre, and Steven Pienaar, left, warm up with their South Africa teammates in training yesterday.

JOHANNESBURG // If South Africa's 23-man World Cup squad were not fully aware of the hysteria that has been building across the Rainbow Nation this week, then they are now. Johannesburg came to a standstill yesterday, as manager Carlos Alberto Parreira's squad toured Sandton, a busy suburb, on the official Bafana Bafana team bus. Local media sources reported that 250,000 fans had gathered to manically cheer on their heroes and the pot-holed roads were gridlocked.

The yellow and green clad supporters were all suffering from the same feverish symptoms that have gripped millions of citizens across the country: the entire population of South Africa has succumbed to Bafana Bafana flu. No matter the hour, day or night, the rasping metallic sound of the traditional vuvuzela horn - as common at African football matches as pies at games in England - fills the sky. The vuvuzela is turning out to be the accessory of choice for seemingly every World Cup fan. Available in the colours of all 32 teams contesting the tournament, one vuvuzela causes quite the racket. Put 10 together and the dim in deafening, so what 90,000 blaring in unison will sound like - we will find out when the hosts face Mexico at Soccer City tomorrow - is anyone's guess.

The noisy, fanatical support South Africa is showing its footballers is astounding. Unbeaten since October, Saturday's 1-0 friendly win over Denmark was the Bafana Bafana's 12 successive game without loss. The team is in form and the players appear to be coping well under the weight of an expectant nation But after the grandeur of the hectic Sandton tour, Parreira's players would have been relieved to know that a quiet training session was the afternoon's sole activity.

Calm, however, cannot be found in South Africa at the moment; hosting your continent's first World Cup guarantees as much. Scenting the historic times, Jacob Zuma, the South Africa president, turned up at the lush University of Witwatersrand training pitch to meet the Bafana Bafana squad, adding, if possible, an ounce more pressure to the already burdened players' shoulders. As jackal-like screams poured from the windows of cars and buses streaming by, a group of 20 or so teenagers planted themselves on picturesque plateau in the green hills overlooking the pristine playing surface. As vantage points go, the youngsters outdid themselves and each, inevitably, was armed with a vuvuzela. "The entire country is behind the Bafana Bafana," President Zuma said to the players. "Everywhere I have gone, I haven't met anyone saying different. Everybody is convinced that we are ready to go to work."

Beyond these shores, little is expected of South Africa in terms of the tournament - Mexico, France and Uruguay complete the hosts' tough group. But having joked with the Bafana Bafana about his own playing days, Zuma remained confident. "Me, as an optimist, I'm saying you will reach the final," the president added. "My hands are itching to hold the cup. This cup has landed in Africa for the first time and it has landed in South Africa - anything can happen in football and we are behind you."

Despite the patriotic fanfare, South Africa will not find the energetic Mexicans pushovers tomorrow. For while it is every World Cup host's right to open the tournament, Guillermo Franco, the Mexico striker, revealed his own side's determination to spoil the party. "Not everyone has the opportunity to kick off the World Cup and we're aware that millions of people will be watching," Franco told reporters yesterday. "All of Mexico is throwing itself into this event." @Email:[e-mail]