Bernard Parker’s life in Holland…

I managed to catch up with one of mzansi's lethal strikers who is firmly finding his feet in the pacey league of the Netherlands. Here's what he had to say in our interview:

How have you settled in Holland since your arrival there last year?
Yes I have settled in well and fast in the first two months already,everything here according to me is so organised and I like it.

How was the reception like from your team mates and the fans of the club?
The people here are so helpfull and their positive aproach in others is something that I like.......my team mates & club is so professional in what they do and I have learnt alot from them and the fans are great aswell, every week we play in a full stadium.

How big of a club is FC Twente and how is the culture of football in the club and the community that supports your team?
According to what I have seen and heard so far, FC Twente is growing into a big club stronger and stronger each year,we have a family culture here with alot of faith in each other and the local community here is great. Almost 80% of the people in this town are TWENTE fans.

Would you say there is a big differance with style of play that is practiced in Holland compared to the PSL?
From what I have experianced within these last 6 months here, there is a huge differance in terms of tactical discipline of the players.

How is life for you outside football in Holland, does the cold temperatures not bother you?
Life off the field is not bad at all, I've got no worries with the cold temperature of this place...I just have to deal with it.

What can we expect from you next season, an overseas ambitions...moving to another league or team etc?
I dont think you guys should have major expectations at all, it's my first season here and all I can say is that next season is going to be better for me than this season.

Do you think you still stand a good chance of making it back to the national team again after being sidelined for a while at your club due to certain complications?
It's my first year here and it's a higher level than the PSL, it's not easy to arrive at a new club and start expecting to play, we have alot of quality here that does the job for the team which explains why we are a top club, I'm aware of that and it makes me tougher to handle this tough situation.

How is the national team gelling after the return of coach Parreira?
We are gelling well as a team, Mr Parreira has alot of experiance in top flight football.

By Mqondisi Mhlanzi
http://www.totalfootball360.blogspot.com/

Salmon is off (his rocker)

Soccer fields awash with coloureds

Feb 22, 2010 10:28 PM By BBK

BBK: I do not know the smell of rotten salmon. Correction. I did not know the smell of rotten Salmon until Sunday.

I have a strong suspicion I got a whiff of what it could be like from something spoken by, well, a Salmon.

It seems Glen Salmon subscribes to the "ignorance is bliss" school of thought. Either that or the Supersport United striker needs, desperately and urgently, to have his head examined.

There is no other way to explain his assertion to my colleague Carlos Amato that coloured players are getting a raw deal in Bafana.

"The players who have done the best internationally are coloured, but there aren't enough of them in the Bafana team," Salmon said in a Sunday Times interview.

If I didn't know Amato better, I would have assumed he plied his interviewee with gallons of alcohol for Salmon to have spoken such hogwash.

Let us take a glance at the current Bafana Bafana team to reconnect Salmon with reality: Emile Baron (Salmon's team-mate), Bryce Moon, Moeneeb Josephs, Bernard Parker, Daine Klate (Salmon's team-mate), Steven Pienaar, Lance Davids, Elrio van Heerden, Morgan Gould (Salmon's team-mate) and Gert Schalkwyk.

Weren't these athletes coloured the last time you checked? Did I forget Bevan Fransman?

Nassief Morris was a Bafana player until he (mis)behaved his way out of the team.

Shucks, even Benni McCarthy, the only South African to win the coveted Champions League, is coloured.

And Carlos Alberto Parreira will move mountains to get Benni leaner and move him from the cafeteria so he can be meaner in the penalty area and bliksem the bull's eye for Bafana during the World Cup. Is that an example of a coloured player getting a raw deal?

Now for a quick blast from the past: former Bafana players Mark Williams, Andre Arendse, Brendan Augustine, Bradley August, Frank Schoeman, Shaun Bartlett, Stanton Fredericks, Fabian McCarthy.

Future Bafana stars Kermit Erasmus, Dylan Claasen.

All coloureds.

It is one thing to be bitter about not being selected for Bafana, but being selective with the truth, when it is staring you straight in the face is plain silly.

The one thing I will give coloured players hands down: die laaities het krag. When they dream, they dream big. Not only that, they are prepared to give blood, sweat and tears to live their dream.

Pienaar is talented. But he is not satisfied with that talent. He has made hard work a constant companion of his talent from Ajax Cape Town to Ajax Amsterdam, to Borussia Dortmund and now Everton.

It is not by mistake that he is attracting the attention of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich, who see him as a perfect fit to plug the gap that will be opened by the departure of Franck Ribery, if Real Madrid succeed in snatching the Frenchman to the Santiago Bernabeu.

While the coloured crowd prosper, the black boys prioritise wine, women and song. They spiral out of control and their careers veer off the rails.

Before you know it, they are called former footballers when they are in their mid-20s, which is when they are supposed to be in their prime.

Only someone smoking smoked salmon would believe the lie that coloured players are getting a raw deal.

I smell something fishy and it smells like rotten Salmon.

source: http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/article321371.ece

SOKHAZANIA TO ROCK SA

Teko gone awol - Star not injured

22 February 2010

Ramatsiyi Moholoa

INFLUENTIAL Orlando Pirates linkman Teko “General” Modise might have landed himself in hot water after going AWOL for three days.

That resulted in the occasional Bafana Bafana captain missing Saturday’s Soweto derby at Orlando Stadium that ended in a goalless draw.

Modise featured for Pirates in the 2-1 Absa Premiership defeat to Maritzburg United at Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg last Wednesday night.

He limped off the pitch in that game and was subsequently replaced by Bennet Chenene, but the Pirates medical team stated that Modise was in good health as far as they were concerned.

“We don’t know where Teko is right now. We last saw him on Thursday morning when the team returned to Johannesburg from Pietermaritzburg,” Pirates coach Rudi Krol said.

“It’s really frustrating and disappointing because he has not spoken to me about his failure to turn up for training after the game against Maritzburg United.”

Krol and his technical team are expected to submit a report to Pirates’ management today , when the postmortem of the derby will also be done.

It is the first time Modise has gone AWOL in his professional career, but the PSL is awash with players with a reputation for disappearing from their clubs.

They include Jabu Mahlangu, Mbulelo Mabizela, Mabhuti Khenyeza, Emmanuel Ngobese, Lerato Chabangu and Tebogo Mashaba.

Sowetan has learnt that Pirates’ medical team did not have any record of Modise being injured . If he was, he did not bring it to their attention.

“Tsholofelo (Modise) is fine as far as we are concerned. We were all taken aback that he has failed to attend training and the derby without a reason,” said a source at Pirates.

Modise was offered a new two- season contract by Pirates last August after failing to secure an overseas move.

His cause was not helped by a lukewarm display in the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup.

Modise refused to answer his cellphone yesterday.

The midfield star’s business manager, Jazzman Mahlakgane, said: “I’m sorry, I can’t blame you guys for chasing the story about Teko based on the information from the coach.

“I can’t say anything more because I’m in a family meeting right now.”

source: http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1116700

Kick ISSA HAYATOU out of CAF !!!

THE AFCON 2010 edition has now come and gone.

Congratulations to Egypt for winning an unprecedented third AFCON title on the trot.

Certainly this makes a mockery of the 2010 World Cup-the African champions will not be there.

What is more embarrasing is that Egypt brushed aside three of the 4 African countires that willbe in the 2010 World Cup.This brings to question again the year in which this continental showpiece is held. Is it wise to have it on the year of the World Cup? I certainly don't think so.

Apart from the shambolic refereeing in the tournament, lack of leadership by CAF has left a bitter taste and is fastly making a mockery of CAF as a whole.

CAF- in fact ISSA HAYATOU- this man is not deserving to be leading this continental Federation- he is useless, visionelss, and invisible- you only see him in Africa when it is CAF elections to positions, you see him when Sepp Blatter is touring the continent.

CAF- showed no leadership when Togo national team players were ambushed, left taumatised, and with 2 fatalities. I can't remember any statement released by CAF inthis regard- except to say the tournament will go ahead.

When the Togo government - did what they are obliged todo- to protect thier cititzens, ordered the team to return home- CAF bans the Togo Football Association- their fault- becuase the Togo government rightfully fears for the safety of its citizens(playesr) who are in the middle of an ambush in Angola- are ordered to withdraw from the AFCON.

CAF- instead slap a ban on Togo for the next two AFCON tournament and a fine.

How low can CAF stoop- choosing to act like this against a national association?

That is rather harsh for Togo Football. They did not leave the tournament out of their own will. Their government felt they had a duty to the players who are citizens of Togo.

My question to CAF: Are they treating loss of life as a political intervention? Are they trying to tell us that the AFCON tournament would have gone ahed even there was a civl war breaking out in Angola.

I am rather dissappointed by CAF and in particular Issa Hayatou who I am not sure why is he still at the helm of African football ?

Sadly, Hayatou has failed African football not once, not twice, but many times and his reward is succesive relection as CAF President.

This man(Hayatou) hardly spend a month in Afirca- he travells around the World being wined and dined by suitors who are lobbying for the vote of the African bloc.

I do not wish to remind South Africans that this is the same man who never voted for South Africa when we were bidding to host the 2006 World Cup.

It's time that our former players like Kalusha Bwalya, Abedi Pele, Roger Milla, should all step forward and be elevated to the CAF leadership.

I support Emmanuel Adebayor in his call for Issa Hayatou and the entire CAF leadership to resign.

ISSA HAYATOU must be recalled!!!

by Makhaya Manie

Egypt vs Ghana Highlights