Samba fever hits South Africa at Confed Cup final

Africa met South America on Sunday at the final match of the FIFA Confederations Cup, as local fans rallied behind Brazil in their exhilarating come from behind 3-2 win over United States.

Despite local team Bafana Bafana – the boys – earlier bowing out to Spain in the third place play-off, a final with the five time world champions was some consolation ahead of the continent’s first World Cup in 2010.

“The US played well but they were totally outclassed by Brazil,” said Sizwe Ndaba, one of the 52,291 fans who watched the 2005 Confeds champions defend their title in a nail-biting finish. “I can’t wait to see them in 2010.”

Fans waved both the South African and the Brazil flags shouted “Brazil are the champions” and “Viva Brazil” as they tried to dance the Samba between the narrow stands of Ellis Park stadium before kick-off.

“Bafana Bafana may not have reached the final, but I am here to shout for Brazil. I like their football,” said James Chungu who travelled from Nelspruit, some 330 kilometres from Johannesburg.

“Being here is all about celebrating the game of football. The Samba boys will take it, they were the best team in this tournament,” predicted Chungu who still has vivid memories of Brazil’s last World Cup victory in 2002.

“This could have been a great moment if Bafana was playing here tonight, but what can we say, they need to polish their skills ahead of the World Cup next year.”

The high school teacher was among thousands of fans who painted their faces blue and yellow, the colours of the Brazil national team and blew the popular plastic airhorn vuvuzela trumpets.

Arnold Nkosi said he had saved for two months to buy a ticket for the final, played in a wintry 10 degrees celsius.

“I knew that Brazil was going to be in the final. I have supported Brazil since I was a kid, this is a fantastic opportunity to them do their thing,” said the 18-year-old unemployed youth waving the Brazilian flag.

The popular team had wowed fans across the country as they won all their games in the two-week tournament.

“I have watched all the games on TV, but this one was worth spending all my savings on it. I couldn’t afford to go and see them in other cities,” said Nkosi.

Neil Simmons, an exchange student from Arizona in the US came with a group of his varsity friends to see his home team play live for the first time.

The group made use of the park-and-ride transport system used to ferry fans from designated parking lots to the stadium which was aimed at minimising traffic volumes, but hit by reports of confusion and congestion.

“The system wasn’t perfect, but it worked, there was no order especially when people had to be taken back to their cars,” said Simmons amid the deafening roar of vuvuzelas.

“There should have been more crowd control to ensure that the systems works smoothly,” he added.

But Cedric Mackay who attended four games at Ellis Park said he was impressed with the overall organisation.

“People need to be taught about how to behave at such big events,” said Mackay, adding that bottlenecks had been caused by spectators.

The pre-match closing ceremony set the tone for Africa’s first World Cup next year with a giant human map of Africa wrapping up the show before the match which saw Brazil claw their way back from 2-0 at half-time.

“I’m overjoyed. What a game,” said elated Brazil fan Antonio Moses.