South Africa, hosts of the finals of the World Cup, can boast of what they have achieved in the world of football since they were re-admitted in the membership of Fifa in 1992.
The won the African Nations Cup in 1996, finished runners-up in 1998, reached two finals of the World Cups in France in 1998 and in Japan and Korea in 2002 and, above all, became the first African country to host the finals of the World Cup, which in itself is a big historical achievement.
South Africa have great hopes and are qualified to go far in the finals not only because they are hosting the event at home and among their enthusiastic vuvuzelas (plastic trumpet) playing fans but because they have players who can win matches.
Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira, a veteran of many finals and a proud holder of a winning medal when he led his country to win the trophy in 1994, is a world famous strategist who can blend the domestic players with their European-based colleagues into a formidable team.
Their last results proved that as they drew with Bulgaria 1-1 and beat Colombia 2-1. And despite the fact that friendly matches do not secure results in official competitive encounters, they remain an indicator of how the teams will fare in a real competition.
European-based players like Steven Piennar, Aaron Mokoena and Benni McCarthy who play in England and Siphiwe Tashabalala and Siyabonga Nomvethe who play with local clubs are sure to represent a problem to defenders.
South Africa has proved in last year's Fifa Confederation Cup that they can rise to the occasion, especially when they lost to Brazil with a single goal following a great match and finished fourth. But the problem of the team is that for a full year, they have not played a single official match which will deprive them of the much required instinct in the competition.
But with fans playing a positive role and their vuvuzelas preventing competing coaches from communicating with their players, South Africa have a good chance to reach the second round of Group A which also features France, Uruguay and Mexico.
In the past they have defeated Mexico once and lost to them twice, drew with Uruguay once and lost to them once while they have lost two matches to France and drawn once. But on the opening match against Mexico these calculations will mean nothing as the Bafana Bafana team get ready to create history at the World Cup.
