Nigeria Win the AFCON 2013 – Sunday Mba Scores the Winning Goal on a Sunday

"Born on Sunday, named on Sunday, played on Sunday, scored on Sunday, Pls join me in welcoming Sunday Mba...."~Wahab Adeshoga

After a beautiful closing ceremony with performances from some of Africa’s biggest musicians, Nigeria faced Burkina Faso in the AFCON final to see who the best team in the continent is. The match was well attended as all the tickets to the 94 000 seat National Stadium were sold out. The Nigerian supporters outnumbered the Burkina Faso supporters but there were many South Africans in the Stadium supporting the under dogs, there were even some Ethiopian fans in attendance.

Nigeria v Burkina Faso Result

Nigerian dominated the first half and was rewarded when Sunday Mba scored late in the first half. The Burkina Faso that was playing in the first half was not the Burkina Faso that we have seen throughout the tournament. In the second half Nigeria continued to dominate the match and missed many opportunities to seal the match. Burkina Faso began to play well and made moves forward but to no avail. They continued attacking in the dying stages on the match but it was too little too late. Sunday Mba’s goal was enough to win Nigeria the AFCON on this day, the 10^th of February on a Sunday.

Stephen Keshi Joins an Elite Club

Nigerian coach Stephen Keshi becomes only the second African coach to win the AFCON as both a player and a coach.

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AFCON 2013 Final SA - Nigeria v Burkina Faso

Aristide Bance the Burkinabe Forward celebrating 

It’s on this Sunday as the Super Eagles of Nigeria take on the Burkinabe’s. Nigeria are reaching their first final since the year 2000 whereas Burkina Faso are going to be playing in their first final, their previous best performance having been a semi-final exit when they hosted the AFCON.

Super Eagles the Giants are Becoming Confident Predators

Nigeria is confident going into the final as they have been showing an increase in performance in each game. The people of Nigeria had doubts about this team and there were questions surrounding many of their star players who were left out of the AFCON 2013 South Africa. I even doubted if the super eagles would get past the quarterfinals as they were going to face Ivory Coast who were the pre-tournament favourites and had played well during the group stages. Nigeria surprised everyone by playing well in defeating the Ivoirians who seem to always choke on the big stage (they remind me of the South African Cricket team). The team is getting support now and even those who doubted Stephen Keshi and his team are behind their team now. The AFCON seems to have united Nigerians as evidenced by the twitter comments I read following Nigeria’s victories. If Stephen Keshi’s side win the final on Sunday he will become only the second African to win the AFCON both as player and coach.

The Underdogs are Looking to Upset the Giants 

On the other hand, the Burkinabe’s are not to be taken lightly. They surprised everyone by making past the group stages, since in previous AFCON’s they had not managed to win a match on foreign land. They made it out of the group stages with the help of their top goal scorer in this AFCON Alaine Traoure who was injured in the final match of the group stages. He will not be playing in the final but will be there to support his team mates. Another key member of the Burkinabe squad Jonathon Pitroipa was sent off on Wednesday for simulation after he was tackled in the Ghanaians penalty area but after an appeal for him to play in the final as the simulation was a wrong call by the referee; he has been cleared to play in the final. It must be a relief for the Burkinabe as he is by far their best player of the tournament so far.   Things are looking up for the Burkinabe and they are growing in confidence as evident in their match against Ghana. Despite being denied a penalty, losing Pitroipa and having what looked like a legitimate goal denied they came out on top. Their Striker Aristide Bance had a good game on Wednesday with numerous shots at goal in which he converted one to equal the score against Ghana. Bance even showed confidence when he took a cheeky penalty during the penalty shootout which Burkina Faso won 3-2. This lanky striker could prove to be a menace against the Super Eagles. 

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Burkina Faso Make it to The Final of The AFCON 2013 Ghana is Out

Bance the goalscorer for Burkina Faso
Source: Twitter

In what was arguably the most exciting game of the tournament Burkina Faso have qualified to go to the finals of the AFCON 2013, beating the favourites Ghana 3-2 on penalties after drawing the game 1-1 in 120 minutes of open play. Burkina Faso controlled the game they out played Ghana. Even though Ghana had a few chances to score which they missed Burkina Faso had more chances, Bance the Burkina Faso forward has multiple chances to convert, he hit the cross bar once and scored their goal in the second half after Ghana had scored from the penalty spot in the first half.

Ghana had trouble dealing with the Burkina Faso attack, they had trouble dealing with Bance and Janathon Pitroipa. The referee was against Burkina Faso in this match first he denied them what looked like a clear goal, then he gave Pitroipa a red card when he had clearly been fouled in the 18 area, saying that he was diving . It was Pitroipa's second yellow that is why he got a red. Despite this the Burkinabe's pulled through and won the match that they should have won in open play through penalties.

Burkina Faso has now for the first time qualified for the final of the AFCON, where they will meet the Super Eagles of Nigeria. This will be an epic match, a David v Goliath match. Burkina Faso have been entertaining throughout this tournament and have had a solid defense only conceding twice so far in the tournament.
They have made the sand pit that is Mbombela Stadium their home, doing very well there. They have been my favourite team this tournament, and I am looking forward to seeing them play Nigeria in the final this weekend.

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Nigeria is Through to The Finals of AFCON Mali is out

Nigeria win semi-final 4-1 against Mali
Source:Twitter

Nigeria Have made it to the AFCON 2013 final after not being in a final since year 2000. They made it to the final after beating Mali by a convincing 4 goals to 1. Mali qualified to the semi-final after upsetting the host nation by winning 3-1 on penalties after 120 minutes of tough football which resulted in a 1-1 score in open play. Elderson Echiejile scored the opener a low header from a lovely cross from victor Moses. Brown Edeye scored their second goal. Nigeria made it 3 when Emmanuel Emenike's shot was deflected into the net.

In the second half Nigeria scored their forth when substitute Ahmed Musa tapped it in. Mali finally got a consolation goal late in the second half scored by Cheick Diarra.

We are now waiting to see who Nigeria are going to face in the final between Burkina Faso and Ghana. The favorites going into the match is Ghana but this is football so everyone has a chance.  This match is going to play later today in about an hours time at 20:30.

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Day 2 AFCON 2013 SA Quarterfinals – Burkina Faso v Togo Results

The Togo team during their quarterfinal v Burkina Faso
source: Tadegnon

After the great match of Nigeria v Ivory Coast with Nigeria going through to the Semi-finals, Togo v Burkina Faso followed at Mbombela Staduim. Mbombela Staduim being the worst pitch in this tournament, I had read an article saying they had manually removed some of the sand from the pitch but that did not seem to help as it was still horrible during the quarterfinal match.

Burkina Faso v Togo

Burkina Faso had played really well during their group matches, drawing twice and trashing the Ethiopians 4-0. Togo on the other hand had lost a one, won one and managed a draw in their final match to qualify for the first time to the quarterfinals of the AFCON.

The match between Togo and Burkina Faso was fast paced with Burkina Faso attacking from early in the match; they had a few opportunities to score but fumbled in front of goal. The Togolese also had a few wasted chances during the first half which they failed to convert. In the second half Burkina Faso launched attack after attack again to no avail. The Togolese attacked whenever they could too but again they failed to score. The match went to extra time, this time the Burkina Faso team was going on a full on attack at times with their whole team with the exception of the keeper on the Togolese side of the field. Burkina Faso was rewarded when Jonathon Pitroipa headed in a beautiful gaol in the 105^th minute of play before the extra time half time whistle was blown. Burkina Faso kept possession of the ball during the second half of extra time to secure a victory and reach the semi finals for only the second time since 1998 AFCON.

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Day 2 AFCON 2013 Quarterfinals – Nigeria v Ivory Coast results

Nigerian fans celebrating Nigeria beating Ivory Coast 2-1.
Source: Twitter

Day two of the AFCON 2013 South Africa promised to be an entertaining day, because African giants Nigeria and Ivory Coast the favourites to take the cup were going to go head to head. This was for many people the final before the final, unfortunate for one of the teams as there had to be a winner and a loser.

Ivory Coast v Nigeria

Nigeria had a bad start to the tournament with many people believing that this was not their best squared considering the amount of football talent in Nigeria. They only just managed to get into the quarterfinals by winning their last game against Ethiopia by 2 goals to nil from the penalty spot.

Ivory Coast on the other hand had dominated their group, by clinching 2 wins before they had to sweat to come back from a 2-0 deficit against Algeria who brought the game to the Ivoirians only to draw the match 2-2.

Coming into the match the Ivoirians were the favourites, with many thinking this Nigerian squad was going to book their flights back to Nigeria after their match, but it was not to be so. Nigeria the super eagles finally showed up to the AFCON 2012. They had their best showing of the tournament so far, they attacked the Ivoirians from the get go, so it was not surprise when they scored first(Emenike) even though I felt the Ivoirian goal keeper should have block that ball since it was in his direction. In the second half the Ivoirians finally showed up to the match in an effort to fight back, they were rewarded for their efforts when they scored from a beautiful header (Tiote). This was not to be their day as later in the second half the Nigerians scored a beautiful and powerful shot into the top corner (Sunday Mba) of the Ivoirian net.

Ivory Coast the favourites are out, in the quarterfinals of the AFCON 2013, they join the hosts South Africa and Cape Verde in the teams eliminated in the quarterfinals.

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AFCON 2013 South Africa Day 1 of the Quarterfinals results

Keita giving Yeye a wedgie during Mali v SA game AFCON 2013

It was a beautiful day of football on the second of February 2013 during the AFCON 2013. Ghana played against the giant killers Cape Verde and Mali faced the hosts Bafana Bafana. The first quarter finals were clashes between group A of AFCON 2013 and group B of AFCON 2013.

Ghana v Cape Verde

Ghana had been one of the favourites to win the tournament since the beginning of the AFCON, they had also supported the favourite tag by coming out top of their group with 7 points, drawing their first match and convincingly winning their next two games. Cape Verde on the other hand were the underdogs of the tournament from the get go having qualified by eliminating Cameroon in the qualifiers. They began their tournament with two draws and end the group stages with an impressive win over Angola by coming from a goal behind to win the game 2-1.

Cape Verde started the quarterfinal well taking the game to the Ghanaians, they had many shots at goal compared to Ghana but they failed to hit the target, Ghana started off slow but were growing in stature as the match progressed. Ghana got a penalty when their player was shoved off a ball in the 18 area. Ghana converted the penalty into a goal but that did not stop the Cape Verdeans from attacking. In fact when the goal was scored the game became more exciting. The Cape Verdeans launched attack after attack but it was to no avail as they failed to score. During a last minute attack by the Cape Verdeans each and every one of their players went to the Ghanaian goal in an attempt to score from a corner, including their keeper. They failed to score,  the ball was cleared by Ghana and they launched a counter attack which turned into a goal as they netted into the empty goal of Cape Verde to make it 2-0.

Mali v South Africa

Mali had a tough group stage, they began with a victory over Niger, then a loss to Ghana then they drew their final match against the DRC to secure a second place finish in their group. South Africa started their tournament under pressure from the home crowd expecting a victory in the first match against Cape Verde but was held to a boring 0-0 draw. South Africa improved in their second Match by starting like a house on fire to defeat Angola 2-0. There once again impressive when they came back twice against the Moroccans to draw the match 2-2 and secured a place in the next round top of their group.

The South Africans played their best since the tournament began in the first half during the quarterfinal, constantly attacking the much favoured Malians. They scored a deserved goal when Thuso Phala crossed the ball to Rantie who tapped into the back of the net. South Africa began the second half well but let the Malians get back into the game when an un-marked Keita scored a stunning header from a cross. The Malians were now improving as the match approached 90 minutes but the match ended with a 1-1 score so it had to go into extra time. During extra time both teams tried to score the winning goal but could not convert the opportunities they created. Extra time was over and it was now time for penalties. Mali won by converting all 3 penalties whereas the South Africans only managed to score one, with Furman, Mahlangu and Majoro not converting. Shabalala was the only South African to convert from the spot. Mali had for the second year running moved on to the semi finals by defeating the hosts on penalties. 

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AFCON2013 South Africa Group Stages Over, Quarter Finalists, Fixtures

Goodbye Beautiful Ethiopian girls at AFCON supporting their team
PIC FROM: JOYFM FACEBOOK

It has been quite an eventful past couple weeks at the AFCON 2013 South Africa. We started off with 16 teams now 8 have been eliminated and we move on to the next round of matches the Knockout stages, the business end of the tournament, the quarter finals. Over the past couple of weeks we saw a boring start to the AFCON with many matches ending in draws, but that did not last very long because by the second group games teams like South Africa, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso improved their game and started scoring those crucial goals and with those goals the AFCON got more interesting. Teams Like Cape Verde who only have about 500 000 people in their entire country did well and impressed many people, the girls did not want Cape Verde to leave as they were enjoying the “eye candy” according to some twitter updates I read earlier these past couple of weeks. Teams like Angola continued to under-perform during this tournament just as they did in previous AFCON’s.

Which Teams Were Eliminated from the AFCON 2013 South Africa?

All of the Northern African teams were eliminated during the first round during the group stages, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia are all out. Algeria had a bad tournament and failed to pull off a single victory or to score in the first two matches, they had a 2 goal lead late in the second half but managed to screw up and concede to late goals from Ivory Coast. Morocco played well but not well enough, they played 3 draws which was not good enough to secure a quarter final spot. Morocco tried to win the last match against the lowest ranked side in their group South Africa but it was not to be as the hosts  managed to come back twice in the game to secure a draw and to end top of their group. Tunisia failed to qualify even after being given two penalties in their final match against Togo, where the ref was giving most of the decisions to their side, they only managed to get one penalty in the back of the net and their draw was not enough to see them through to the next round.

The Upset of this tournament so far is the group stages Knockout of Zambia the defending champions who got knocked out when they failed to win their final match against Burkina Faso. Angola also got eliminated during the first round, their poor AFCON performance record continues. Ethiopia were also eliminated despite having thousands of vibrant fans supporting them during their matches, they started the AfCON 2013 well giving people hope but then they were trashed 4-0 by Burkina Faso and 2-0 by Nigeria to seal their AFCON first round exit. Niger are also out, it is like they never showed up for the AFCON.  DR Congo were also eliminated after staging a great come back from 2-0 down against Ghana in first match, but disappointing in their next two matches.

Which teams qualified for the AfCON Quarterfinals?

Ivory Coast were the first to qualify with a 2-1 win over Togo and a 3-0 win over Tunisia to seal their place in the quarterfinals after only two games. The host Nation South Africa qualified with two draws and a convincing win over Angola. Ghana was not playing their best football but they also qualified to the next round quite easily.  Mali is a regular in qualifying to the next round, even though they qualified they did not play very well, their coach stated that it was because most of his players were not getting game time at their teams so we should expect to see them improve as the tournament progresses. Nigeria have had a poor showing so far, this being the weakest Nigerian team I have ever seen but they managed to qualify to the next round. Togo managed to qualify to the next round as well, even though the ref was against them in their final match they pulled through. Burkina Faso sealed their place by beating Ethiopia 4-0 and getting a draw against the defending champions. The surprise qualifiers have been the 500 000 nation Cape Verde who qualified by beating Angola during their last group match.

Quarterfinal Fixtures

Ghana vs Cape Verde, Saturday Feb 2, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, 17:00

South Africa vs Mali, Saturday Feb 2, Moses Mabhida Stadium, 20:30

Ivory Coast vs Nigeria, Sunday Feb 3, Royal Bafokeng Stadium, 17:00

Burkina Faso vs Togo, Sunday Feb 3, Mbombela Stadium, 20:30

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The AFCON Has Officially Begun, Still Waiting For The First Goal

Soccer City Afcon 2013
photo by Agencia Brasil

Today the AFCON officially started with the president of South Africa welcoming all the 5 African nations to South Africa and opening the games. It was a rainy day in Johannesburg much like it’s been raining in many areas throughout the country. There was a bit of doubt as to whether the National Stadium/ Soccer City was going to be able to handle opening ceremony plus the two matches between South Africa vs Cape Verde and Morocco vs Angola.  At the end of the day the opening ceremony and the two matches were hosted successfully there.

The Opening Match: South Africa vs Cape Verde

This was a highly anticipated match in South Africa which was attended by 88 000 fans with their vuvuzelas, the South Africans wanting the host nation to start off the competition with a win to make progressing to the next stage easier but it was not to be as the match ended in a goalless draw. It was a boring and disappointing match I hope these two teams play much more entertaining football in their next matches and that they score some goals.

The Second Group A Match: Morocco vs Angola

After the goalless draw between the host nation Bafana Bafana vs Cape Verde, we were hoping to see some goals seeming as any team which won this match would be placed at the top of the group and have an advantage going into the next match. Unfortunately this match also ended in a goalless draw which means there are still zero goals in the 2013 AFCON after two matches, let’s hope the goals will come soon in these next few matches, the last thing we want is a boring low scoring AFCON. To be fair though Morocco were the better team during this game but they failed to convert their opportunities up front.

This was only day 1 and the nerves may have gotten to the players, let us hope as they get used to the competition and the pressure the nerves will settle and we will start seeing some goals.

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Farewell London - The end of a great Olympics

London 2012 Was Awesome

Micheal was shocked he lost by mistiming his touch and Chad had his perfectly timed with a strong finish

So the Olympics have come and gone, and they have left us with many memories. I can’t wait for 4 years to fly by once more so that I can witness the Brazil Olympics. A lot of records were broken during these Olympics from the pool to the track, and it was all exciting to watch, it amazing how 2 weeks vanishes in a flash, it’s amazing how 4 years of hard training ends in the making of sporting legends and how other fail when it comes to the main event when they have been dominant in the years coming up to the Olympics.

America had the most medals, that was to be expected from the sporting super power, they dominate most events, especially the pool, basketball and track and field events. Australia had a disappointing Olympics this time around, the gold medals seemed to elude them especially in the pool, but one great swimming countries fall means other smaller fish get to rise to the occasion. And the smaller fish did rise to the occasion this Olympics saw France dominate the men’s freestyle events, it saw South African Cameron Van Der Burgh win gold and break the 100 breast stroke even though his speciality was the 50m breast stroke, this Olympics saw future swimming legends born when 20 year old Chad le Clos from South Africa won gold in the 200m butterfly, beating Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian of all time who had dominated the pool for more than a decade, Chad then went on to take silver in the 100 butterfly final, this time the legend made sure he won.

Chad agrees to go with girl to her matric dance which is like prom 

Michael Phelps became the greatest Olympian of all time in London 2012, with a total of 22 medals and 18 gold medals; no one comes close to matching him. Sadly for us this is said to have been his last Olympic games.

The high light of this Olympics for me was again just like 4 years ago, the 100m dash final, to see who the fastest man in the world is, and with no surprise it was once again the legend, Usain Bolt. The man is a beast, no one can catch him or even come close to him, it was as if he was racing himself and the rest were in their own race for 2^nd and 3^rd position. It was good to see that Jamaica have an even stronger sprinting team now. They are going to dominate athletics for a long time, I tell you. When they broke the 4*100 relay they stamped their speed authority, the U.S.A team was good but not good enough. With Yohan Blake and Bolt in the same team (2 fastest men in the world), there was no way any other team would win that relay final. Bolt and Yohan Blake finished 1st and 2nd for both the 100m and 200m sprint events, which shows just how awesome the Jamaican sprinters are.

I do not know about other countries but our (South African) athletes arrived today and were greeted by tons of proud supporters at the OR Tambo international. There is plenty to be proud of, I know the athletes who won medals are getting cheques, but I hope they get proper funding in the way of sponsorships so that they continue to do great work and I hope that sports such as rowing are now promoted and funded since the sport has gained some media coverage since we won gold in the men’s light weight 4 men rowing.

Oh and before I forget Great Britain did really well during these Olympics, using their home ground advantage effectively, so well done to the Brits and the city of London for putting on a great show. 

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The London 2012 Olympics are underway

This weekend the Olympics began, they began with an opening ceremony just like any other world competition. I was not that impressed by the opening ceremony but it had its moments of awesome entertainment like when Mr Bean was doing what he is famous for (making people laugh). I also enjoy it when all the athletes from all the participating nations walk into the stadium. The big teams like America, China, Great Britain and other countries have hundreds of participants thus increasing their probability to win more medals, whilst the smaller sporting nations have fewer participants. South Africa, my country does not have a lot of participants as always but hopefully we are going to get more medals than in the last Olympics in Beijing.

Some events like rowing, tennis, badminton, hockey, soccer, basketball, archery, gymnastics, cycling and possibly other sports which are not that popular have already began with China and America leading the medals(no surprise there). Oh I forgot to mention that swimming has also been one of the main attractions on the early days; there have already been a few finals and Olympic/world records broken.

How South Africa Is Doing So Far

4 years ago South Africa only managed to win 1 medal and it was a silver medal. That was a very disappointing year for us. This year on day 2 we have already managed to win 1 gold medal in the pool. Last time no medals were won in the pool even though the swimming pool is one of our strongest events.

The South African soccer team Banyana Banyana managed to qualify for the Olympics, being only one of two African representatives at the London Olympics. Banyana Banyana is the lowest ranked team in at the Olympics so basically the odds were stacked against them. They were beaten 4-1 during their opening match against Sweden, and then beaten 3-0 by Canada, they face Japan tomorrow, and it is not looking good for the South African ladies as the Japanese ladies are the current world champions. They were unlucky to be grouped with teams that are all in the top 7 in the world when they are not even ranked in the 50s.

South African Swimmers

A few of our swimmers managed to do well in the heats in the first couple of days on to do badly during their semi-finals and finals.  But the highlight of the London Olympics so far has been Cameron Van Der Burgh who became the first home-bred male South African to break a swimming world record. He got better with each round, he broke the Olympic 100m Breast stroke record and went on to break the world breast stroke record during the final to win South Africa’s first gold medal during the London Olympics. The South African 100 relay team did well during the qualifiers and were neck to neck with the French, who eventually won the gold in the final, but South Africa’s performance during the final was disappointing and they did not win a medal.

That is all for now, let us hope there are still more medals to be won by South African Athletes in the coming events.

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Are Athletes worth all that money?

If you look around at all the popular sports in the world or even in America alone, in the NFL, the NBA, the English Premier League or the La Liga, the athletes in those leagues make a lot of moola. The guys at the top of their game make even more money, they bag some more cash with sponsorship deals and their names become brands.

A lot of people say that athletes do not deserve so much money, or that they do not need so much money, that it’s no longer about the love of sport but that sport has become a business. A lot of people say that all that money should be spent on worthy causes like charities and helping the under privileged.

Christiano Ronaldo Real Madrid Player

I am sure that a lot of the points people make about the money athletes make are valid but they are all subjective just like this post. We all see things from a different perspective. Here is one way of looking at things, we all grow up having hobbies when we are kids, most people do not get the chance to make their hobby their source of income. Most people end up doing something they dislike just to make ends meet. If you could make money doing something you love you would too.

Athletes are entertainers, that is what they do, they train hard to be the best at what they do. Every time they train or get onto the play ground they risk injury and their careers have a time limit, unlike most careers they could lose everything in a second and have no source of income and even if they do not get permanently injured they always to be in the best shape of their lives because there is always someone younger, stronger or faster waiting for the opportunity to take their place.

The entertainment industry is full of money, because we all want to be entertained and we are willing to pay good money to make sure we are entertained. I do agree that they make too much money but they deserve that money, they work for it, they did not cheat anyone out of it. Athletes are entertainers just like movie stars and other celebrities; they all make a ton of cash that is the way of life.

Athletes fill stadiums with paying fans who buy their merchandise, which makes them a lot of money. Their faces are put on products and those products sell, who do you suppose takes all that money made from using their talent and image? People complain about athletes making too much money when children are starving, I say athletes do donate to worthy causes and start charities and development centres, but what of the politicians whose job it is to make sure there are no starving children who chow our tax money and line their pockets in positions of power?

I do acknowledge that athletes make a ton of money and I am fine with that, they work for it, if you could do the same thing (use a talent to make money) you would, if not that is your own thing. This is life everything revolves around cash, tell me when that changes.

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For the love of violence

I love fighting, I love watching people fight, I love being in fights (with only ones body as a weapon), I love beating people up and them beating me up much the same. In a world where people are crying out for piece violence still reigns supreme. The world will never be at piece, there is always someone bombing and killing people somewhere around the world. I love fair fighting but I do not support violence using weapons with the intension to kill anyone.

We all have violence in our blood, perhaps I more so than some of you, for I come from a warrior bloodline where young boys would be taught to fight and face each other on a regular basis. Sadly this does not happen much in my generation, it ended with my father’s generation.

Mike Tyson once the worlds most dangerous man

As a kid I would watch movies, action movies and martial arts movies from china, at the end of the movie I like any other normal boy would be so pumped that I wanted to try out some of the moves that I saw in the movies. I could not wait to visits a friend and practice the moves with him. My friends and I which was basically all the kids in our neighbourhood would host fighting competitions to see who the best fighter was and just to have fun kicking each other’s asses.  I ruled for a while amongst my age group and others a couple years older but everyone gets their ass kicked even me.

I liked facing guys that I felt would challenge me, not weaklings who I could easily defeat, that was not fun. That’s why I liked facing older guys because I knew they were stronger than I was and would possibly kick my ass, and I always did my best and got better with practice.

Many times if I beat someone up and it was at their backyard I had to run home since I got in trouble with their parents especially their mothers. My mother had no problem with me since I never complained to her. Plus if I told her anything about someone beating me up, she would go to that person’s house and embarrass me and that was not what I wanted, I wanted to be seen as a badass not a sissy.

I was a good student in school I mean so I would eventually go the library and get books about fighting and read up and practice those fighting techniques. I read about different styles of fighting from Karate to Judo and everything in between.

The problem with me is I loved fighting, I was shy and soft spoken and one of the smallest kids around so new kids would try and pick on me only to have their asses kicked. I did not really know how to solve conflict, so if someone was irritating me, swearing me or making fun of me I would simply kick the ass. I realised that kicking peoples asses was not the right thing to do because martial arts teaches you self control, but I never ever started conflict so that was the excuse I always had after kicking someone’s ass and I always had a 3 warning system whereby I would warn you 3 times if you were doing something that made me angry and on the 3^rd strike I would kick your ass without any further warning.

I was not a bully because I did not go around beating innocent people up but I did have anger issues and I had a bad way of resolving conflict which was fighting. Funny enough after fighting with most guys, we would become friends afterwards. I beat up many kids and I got beaten up a few times myself either by my opponents or their older brothers but I always had a never give up attitude, I fought even when the odds were against me, till the end which was mostly when people usually adults came and stopped us.

I am older now, I do not fight as often because I practice self control and use other methods of conflict management but there are still some situations where a serious ass kicking is needed. My most recent fight after many years of not fighting was last year when my varsity friends and I were at a KFC drive-thru and we were attacked by some random violent idiot who was later joined by other idiots in what eventually became a street brawl. All I can say is, people got hurt, guns were involved (not shot was fired only threats until the issue was resolved), shoes got lost (lol, my friend lost his sandal when we were being chased by armed idiots), cops were involved. In the end it was one of my most adventurous nights out, at some point I thought I was going to die.

Anyways the world is a violent place, there will never be peace, you can try however hard to bring peace to earth but that is not possible. I love wrestling, I love MMA, I love boxing/kickboxing and so do a lot of other people, I love GOD OF WAR and other violent games and lots of people love those as well so that is my 2 cents on violence. 

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One of the most beautiful and fastest super car ever – The Zenvo ST1

The Zenvo ST1 is not well known to the general population who are not in love with fast cars, especially super cars. They are no longer calling cars like the Bugatti Veyron Super sport and the Zenvo just super cars, they have coined the term Hyper-cars to distinguish them from other supercars. If cars had god’s hyper cars would be the Gods, supercars the demi-gods and luxury cars the royalty and the privileged.

Talk about elitist, there are only 15 of these beauties available and they are manufactured by Danish company Zenvo Automotive which was only founded in 2004. It was about time someone not from, Germany, Italy, Britain, or America made a car that challenged for the world’s fastest car. Only a few road cars can g0 from 0-60mph in less than 3 second and have more than 1000hp and the Zenvo ST1 is one of those select few.

Zenvo Front view, amazing supercar

The Zenvo ST1 has a 7litre V8 engine which is both Turbo and supercharged. It produces 1.104 horsepower and 1.430Nm of torque. This beauty has a top speed of 233mph and can go from 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds. Like other hyper-cars this baby does not come cheap, it is as exclusive as it gets at a base price of $ 1 225 000, the cost of the US based model is $ 1.8million which includes a free watch worth $50 000, plus the US model  has 1250hp compared to the other models sold elsewhere which only have 1104hp.

The Zenvo ST1 side and rear view, awesome supercar design

The Danish have done an outstanding job, both in performance and design, it is not often that such a fast powerful car looks so beautiful, just look at the ultimate aero, it is ugly but superfast. This just shows that you do not need to sacrifice looks for performance; this reminds me of another super car manufacturer that makes beautiful powerful cars Aston Martin.

Go to net car show to see other awesome supercars

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Hot Porche Supercar - The Panamera Turbo S

Porche is one of the big names when it comes to sports super cars, yet they are also one of the most affordable if not the most affordable super cars. Today the featured car is one of Porche's top of the range cars, the Porche Panamera turbo S. This beauty comes with a 4.8litre V8 twin turbo engine, 405kw(550hp) of pure power, 750Nm of torque. To add icing to the cake it has a top speed of 306km/h and goes from 0-100km/h in 3.8seconds.

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We all want to be tall

Nobody likes being short or being really tall for that matter but we would all like to be atleast the same height as everyone else around us. Girls are relatively shorter than guys buy there are alot of girls who are as tall as guys for example models.

Your height is dependant on lots of factors such as genetics and your health and nutrition during different stages of development. If for example you started doing certain kinds of drugs or were exposed to dangerous toxins when you were growing up, this could have stunted your growth. Even if you mother used drugs when she was pregnant with you, that could have stunted your growth especially in the early stages.

My parents are both about 5'9'' (1.74-1.75m) and I am already taller than them at around 5'11''(1.8m) tall. My grand father on my fathers side was above 6'0'' tall and so was my uncle who is my dads younger brother, and only one of my close cousins in tall standing at 6'2''. The rest of my family are either short or average sized. Average could be anything depending on your country, the stats are different for guys and girls. Here in South Africa we are not the tallest people in the world with our guys at an average height of 5'7''(1.69m) just look at our soccer team Bafana Bafana.

A friend of mine who is pretty short or average in terms of our country once told me that he has always been short and has gotten used to it and he has no problem with his height. He told me that its people like me who are in the fringe of being tall that have issues with height. He said that we fringe people were like silver medallist, so close yet so far. I had to agree with him, I am taller than most people I meet but I feel short and wish a had an inch more in height so I could be that magical 6'0'' tall even though I don't think that would make me tall since there is not much difference between me now and if I was an inch taller.

This height thing is so weird because I would move from a public setting where I was taller than most of the people and then I would go to a club where I would then be dwarfed by most of the people including the girls because that particular club would be filled with models and model types.

I don't like feeling little and therefore I do not usually approach chicks who are BIGGER than me, its intimidating somehow but if they are sexy its a kind of turn on. I do not find women who look like they can beat me up attractive. As for guys, I am not the biggest, I am normal size so there will always be taller bigger guys and I do not care much about guys but it feels weird if I am the smallest shortest guy in the group, I guess the Australian rugby captain got used to that a long time ago.

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The new Rulers of african football

Its a bit late but never late then never, I would like to congratulate Zambia on a job well done. They have made us proud. They have beaten all the teams that were favourites to win the AFCON, I don't think there was a more deserving team.

 It is the best kind of victory, a true victory when you have beaten all of the competitions best teams in order to get the title. I wish Zambia the best for the future and i hope this opens more opportunities for their players to go play in the big leagues in Europe.

I also hope this has encouraged some more African players to come and play in the PSL as our standard of football and pay is up there with the best of them, especially if you are comparing us with other African, Asian or South American leagues.

I hope the South  African team Bafana Bafana and its management were watching Zambia and what it has accomplished. I hope that we will qualify for the AFCON here in South Africa a few years from now and do not rely on our automatic qualification as host like we did for the world cup only to get out in the first round.

As for Ivory Coast tough luck, Drogba should really learn to relax and not miss those penalties in finals, first in 2006 and again this year. This is disappointing from a guy who scores under enormous pressure in the eufa and English Premiership. They golden generation is not winning any AFCONS and its not like the captain is getting any younger. Funny thing is no goals were scored against Ivory Coast during the whole competition, they had a solid defence but eventually lost out in penalty shoot-outs.

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what is happening to the standard of african football

The African cup of nations is usually a time of pride for us Africans, a time when we get to watch our heroes the best players in Europe come back home to show their skills against other African opposition. A time when the best teams in Africa face each other to see who is the king of Africa. Well all I can say is that the 2012 African cup of nations is a disappointment for me. Many of Africa's most popular and skillful teams did not qualify and so this African cup of nations was doomed from the beginning. This meant that a lot of people were not going to watch the African cup of nations, because many of the continents biggest teams also happen to come from some of the biggest counties in terms of size. This means that the African nations cup is going to receive or should I say is receiving a potentially decreased viewing.

The top African nations who did not qualify are Egypt, South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, I feel like this has left a big gap in the African spectacle. These are countries people want to see playing at the nations cup, countries who have qualified for the world cup before and have conquered the African continent before. Yes, top African teams like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tunisia, Senegal, Mali, and Morocco are there but That is not enough. I have watched some of the matches and I have to say that I am not impressed.  I am especially disappointed that Senegal, one of the teams with one of the best striking forces in Africa lost their matches and are now gone back home, they had a terrible showing, its like they did not show up. I know that the teams who qualified deserve to be there but i would also think that if you qualify using great footballing skill, even after you qualify you should keep the same standard of play or improve. I hope the next African cup of nations is better and that the big teams qualify, you only need a few small nations not a lot of them to make the tournament exciting.

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what is up with bafana bafana

You know I used to be a real supporter of local football, but now I do not watch it that much anymore. I only watch kaizer chiefs games now, but even then its when they play a serious opposition. I know that South African football has improved and that our league is in the top 7 most endorsed leagues in the world and that our premier Soweto derby is one of the most watched and supported derbies in the world. What I fail to understand is why are the results of our improved league and standard of football not showing in the performance and rank of our national team bafana bafana.

Our team plays such attractive football but they just cant convert all that flare and ball possession into actual goals and wins. Its like we are in the league of draws even with seemingly weaker opposition. I said i do not support soccer all that much but I am very patriotic and I always support our boys even when they are sometimes more worried about bonuses when they should be worried about winning games first. I hope that we turn the corner and go back to our winning ways of the late 90's and early 2000's, this decade has been disappointing for us South Africans.

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