World Cup watching just got a whole lot easier: But now it's time to find out who will make the cut

World Cup fever: this from the US, where viewing figures are huge

THE World Cup in Brazil is about to get a lot easier. For the hard-pressed non-football-loving spouses, abandoned kids, dogs… and sleep-deprived fans. But not for the players, of course.

With all 32 sides now two games in to their Group phase, we begin that four-eyed segment of the greatest footballing event on earth, with the third and final games played SIMULTANEOUSLY over four days.

And we even get a day off on Friday, a 24-hour breathing space before the remaining 16 nations begin the knock-out phase on Saturday, June 28.

For South Africans, deprived of Bafana Bafana thanks to a memorable own goal in Adis Ababa (and a whole lot of other stuff, but reports in Nigeria today suggest Steve Keshi is on his way, walking across the ocean), this tournament is about AFRICA.

After a first round which saw just one win (for Ivory Coast over Japan) and a draw (for Nigeria against lowly Iran) with three gut-wrenching defeats, things are looking up for the BIG FIVE who qualified through CAF’s tough-as-teak system.

As the only federation where group winners are forced to play-off, our five survivors have in some ways the toughest path to each World Cup, with 55 nations cut down to a mere handful.

And that toughness showed in the second round, with Ghana leading the way. Their 2-2 draw with FIFA’s No2 ranked team Germany is now regarded as the best game of Brazil 2014 so far. Andre Ayew and Asamoah Gyan did the scoring, but former Free State Stars defender Jonathan Mensah played a vital role too, as did Ghana’s goalkeeper Fatau Dauda, thrown in to the fray despite playing just twice for Orlando Pirates last season.

Never a truer world: earliest ever exit for England

With South Africans finally finding somebody to cheer for (even our referee Daniel Bennett dropped out after getting injured in Brazil) the African nations bounced back strongly. Nigeria saw off Bosnia 1-0 before Algeria crushed South Korea 4-2, sparking huge celebrations across the continent (and, no doubt, in North Korea).

The second round saw African nations win 2, draw 1 and lose 2. We shall not talk about the Cameroon too much. Shipping four goals, having Alex Song sent off and two players fighting on the pitch can be in NO WAY considered a critique of long-serving CAF president Issa Hayatou. Of course not.

Anyway, the upshot of it all is this: Nigeria have FOUR points; the Ivory Coast and Algeria have THREE points,  Ghana have ONE point. They are all still alive. The first three go in to their final games in SECOND position in their groups, Ghana look unlikely to qualify after the epic USA 2-2 Portugal. Cameroon are out of it, but then so too are great nations like defending champions Spain, England, debutants Bosnia and erm… Australia.

But from a situation where it looked possible Africa would suffer their worst-ever World Cup, we now have a chance of seeing FOUR through to the last 16, where France are emerging as the form side, Netherlands and Germany look strong and ALL the South Americans are looking safe.

Oh, and there’s Costa Rica, with wins over former winners Italy and England. They could yet prove to be THE surprise package in a World Cup already full of shocks, comebacks (eight at the last count) goals and supersubs (15 replacements had scored at the last count).

We should, of course, consider the death of Ibrahim Toure in Manchester after losing his battle against cancer. The loss of the 28-year-old younger brother of Yaya, 31, and Kolo, 33, has put the Ivory Coast under a unique set of pressures. We can only wish the family well.

Africa now has a record of Played 10, won three, drawn two and lost five. Asia can offer only Played 8, won 0, drawn 3 and lost 5, their worst display since 1998. One more win and the CAF nations will have enjoyed their most successful World Cup in history. That in itself should give us SOMETHING to smile about.

SOCCERBALLZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za with Mark Fish airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. Ballz will also provide daily World Cup updates from next week.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

The first British journalist into England's training camp... ME (and me dad and me brother!)

YESTERDAY I became the first British journalist allowed to view the England training camp before the 2010 World Cup.

And believe me, it wasn’t easy. Hidden behind the faded motel entrance (pictured, right) the Bafokeng Royal Sports Palace Complex isn’t even finished yet. Exactly 6km (about two-and-a-half-miles) beyond the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, which rises out of nowhere in Phokeng, just outside Rustenburg, Fabio Capello’s pre-tournament home is emerging out of the platinum-rich red earth.

England will play the USA at the recently-revamped 50,000-capacity Palace on June 12. But their high-altitude base is the key to success. Hidden behind a peeling sign proclaiming “Sun Gardens Motel” an unbelievable centre for sports excellence is being built in secret, funded by the local Bafokeng tribe, who claim a percentage of the platinum profits.

But British journalists and hopeful onlookers are kept at arm’s length between Phokeng and Boshoek, two tiny African villages outside Rustenburg. We drove for miles searching for the mystical England training complex, expecting huge signage, before a local explained: “It’s behind that tree.”

In disbelief, we crossed the N14 to Sun City, about 100km from the international airport in Johannesburg, which we had travelled for some time. And the gateman at the apparently drab “Sun Gardens Motel” told us: “The Royal Bafokeng Sports Complex is here sir. But you are not allowed in.”

But we are old hands at this. My locally-based father Bob, my brother Glynn and I have already discovered the German base at Velmore Estate, the Italian camp at Leriba Lodge and the USA base at Irene, all near the Test cricket ground in Centurion.

After much persuasion, the gateman called up the big guy. Mark Ferguson, group security in charge of keeping prying eyes away from England’s base. Built to satisfy the king of the Bafokeng, Kagosi Leruo Molotgeti, England have the prime spot for their World Cup preparations. But nobody is allowed to see it.

While Spain, Italy, Argentina and the like face bus journeys between their hotels, training grounds and World Cup venues, England have it all on their doorstep as they prepare to dominate Group C in June next year.

Ferguson confirmed: “The tribe are funding all of this, it’s going to be a sporting centre of excellence for years to come. We are the highest point in South Africa, 100m higher than Johannesburg and Pretoria at 1500m.

“It sets teams up for playing at altitude. We will have the New Zealand and Australia rugby teams preparing here for the Tri-Nations. All kinds of sports teams will come here. But at the moment, we’re trying to keep things under wraps, no journalists allowed. No visitors”

There followed a brief chat. It turns out Ferguson, from Durban, used to play football in Kwa Zulu Natal. I know his old mates. He lets us through the gate, beyond the Sun Gardens Motel, which appears to be a lowly front for what is to come.

We follow him on his quad bike, into the complex. Five plastic pitches are being prepared. Ten grass pitches, unfairly criticised by Capello for having bare patches, are taking shape. They’ll be perfect by May, the rains are good. At least 12 floodlight pylons are already up, with the actual lights still to come.

This is an African sporting paradise. Two of the four sections of the luxury hotel were released by the builders in November. Two more are still to come. The Presidential suites are fabulous, the mirrors are huge, the players will want for nothing. And there is a high-spec gym under construction, with oxygen chambers and all a modern footballer could wish for.

“Look, this is a project still under development. We can’t even confirm England are staying here,” says Ferguson with a wry grin, “We will be ready by May though. You’d be amazed what we can do here, and we are only using local labour. The overseas experts will be brought in later.”

Across the road lies the Kedar country hotel, already fully booked for the World Cup. You’d pay £1,000 a night to book the Presidential Suite here, in a hotel with game lodge attached. Beautiful.

In six months, England will be perfectly placed for their World Cup crusade, David Beckham’s final attempt to end 43 years of hurt. Wife Victoria and the WAGS will be based in a lodge like Kedar or Sun City, South Africa’s Las Vegas, 30 miles up the road.

If we don’t win the World Cup from here, in the middle of nowhere, we never will. With the African nations all suffering in the draw in Cape Town on December 4 and England facing the USA down the road before games against Slovenia in Cape Town and Algeria in Port Elizabeth. They’ll pop down to the coast for those two games to maintain their altitude acclimatisation. When you play at sea-level after training inland, you can run forever.

And then they come back to Phokeng, barely three miles from here, for their first knock-out encounter. It couldn’t be any better. England are looking good for the World Cup 2010. As long as you know where to look.

England 14,000 beds short in Rustenburg: Exclusive!

IT'S all gone mad in sunny South Africa today. Unbeknown to me, while I was swanning around in the pool in Centurion yesterday, the national radio station 702 had picked up on my story about the World Cup draw being fixed (see early blogs and youtube video, search for thenealcol).

Turns out the presenter, David O'Sullivan, a year younger than me when we attended the world-leading journalism course at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, had seen my stuff about the World Cup draw being fixed.

It got the whole nation talking and another old university pal, the World Cup communications director Rich Mdkhondo, was wheeled out to defend the draw. I've just spoken to him on the phone. We've agreed to disagree!

He's a cracking fellow Rich. I've said if he ever needs a positive British voice on the World Cup 2010, just call me.

But then the same radio station asked me to go on tonight at 5.40pm (you can listen live online, just go to www.702.co.za) and sent me a leaked interview with the tourism minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk (above). He reassured everyone two days ago about accommodation during the World Cup... but his official quotes appear to suggest otherwise.

This is the story I sent to the Evening Standard in London:

SOUTH AFRICA have admitted they have a huge shortfall of 14,000 beds in Rustenburg - and similar problems in several other World Cup towns.

England, who have been planning to prepare for the World Cup at Rustenburg's Bafokeng Sports Palace for over a year, will be shocked to learn that nothing has been done about the lack of accommodation in the unfashionable town in the North West province.

Many felt the World Cup draw had been fixed when England, already booked in to their facility, were put in Group C - with their first game against the United States in Rustenburg on June 12.

England got the draw they wanted with the town affectionately known as "Rusty" far enough away to keep the fans out of trouble but happily housed.

But when minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk was asked how the Rainbow Nationw ould cope with the expected 450,000 visitors to his country for Africa's first World Cup kicking-off on June 11, he appeared to be short on answers.

He said: "In terms of the audited database for Rustenburg, there are 134 establishments, translating to 3,489 room and 6,978 beds. We anticipate a shortfall of 14,200 beds."

And the bad news doesn't end there. He added: "Polokwane has 149 establishments, which translate to 2,794 rooms and 5,588 beds. We anticipate a shortfall of 17,000 beds.

"Bloemfontein has 225 establishments, translating to 2,677 room and 5,354 beds. We anticipate a shortfall of 14,100 beds."

And his solution? "To address this, we have extended the definition of host cities to include surrounding areas which can be accessible within an hour, Rustenburg is not far from Gauteng, and Bloemfontein is not far from Kimberley and Polokwane is also not far from Gauteng, Nelspruit and Zimbabwe. We have therefore integrated surrounding areas to accommodate the shortfall and will ensure that there is enough transport to accommodate the fans and visitors."

What the minister neglected to mention is that Rustenburg is a good hour, about 60 miles, from Sandton outside Johannesburg and Centurion south of Pretoria, the two main tourism hubs in Gauteng.

The N4 motorway - a toll road - is in good shape, but getting on to it from Sandton or Centurion is by no means straightforward. Anybody staying in central Johannesburg will be facing at least a 90-minute trip to watch England train in Rustenburg in early June.

Van Schalwyk added: "We anticipate that there will be three million visitors, a third of which will be international visitors. People will not be flying in to attend one game but will come from different games depending on which teams advance to the next round. So the expected 450 000 is not for one game but for the entire event."

Locals are hoping "ungraded" establishments and rented houses will help, but the Minister is clearly worried: "A room that is ungraded is a room that has not been quality assured by the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa. It is difficult to say how it will look like because it has not been checked by the authorities.

"Such an establishment is however authorised to work as a business because quality assurance in South Africa is not mandatory. We however encourage fans to use graded establishments since they would know what to expect from graded establishments."

The web portal for booking accommodation will open by February.

Phew! Hope they don't get too angry about that here. And anyway, my dad's got a guesthouse in Centurion, so the tourists will be flocking to Chez Collins! Off to watch PSL leaders SuperSport United play bottom side Jomo Cosmos tomorrow. It's at Loftus Versfeld, the rugby stadium which doubles as a World Cup venue. Should be interesting. I'll take pictures and tell you more tomorrow...

The hand of God II? No, Thierry, it's your Waterloo, you're just a common cheat.

AT the last count, there were 4,459,547 people in the Republic of Ireland. France, on the other hand, boasts 62,048,473 garlic-eating surrenderers. That's what my grand-dad Poppa Sam from Dublin always said, anyway.
I've never minded the French. But there is an older generation who never forgave them. Said they put their hands up too quickly in the 1940s.
You could understand why last night when Thierry Henry all but caught the ball to provide William Gallas with the goal which put the Irish out of the World Cup. Arsenal fans might call Henry's actions the Hand of God II, but his demonic intervention will not be swiftly forgotten, just ask Diego Maradona. It's not clever. It's cheating. I'm sure he'll try to justify it, but sorry Thierry, there is no way this was an accident or a reflex, it was just WRONG.
Florent Malouda's free-kick was clearly going out of play late in the first period of extra-time when Henry used his left arm - not once but twice - to keep the ball in before playing in Gallas for the point-blank winner which made it 1-1 on the night. Oh, and the whole move looked suspiciously offside from the moment the free-kick was taken.
The last tango in Paris for controversial French boss Raymond Domenech should have been inspired by Robbie Keane's perfectly legitimate goal, set up when Kevin Kilbane freed Damien Duff with a lovely first-time pass. Duff's inch-perfect cut-back was comfortably stuck away by Spurs striker Keane to level the World Cup play-off after Nicolas Anelka scored the only goal at Croke Park, Dublin on Saturday.
When Anelka looked like doing it again eight minutes into extra-time, Shay Given came out and looked like he scythed the Chelsea man down. The Stade Francais crowd, apart from the 25,000 in green who had made the trip, universally saw it that way. Fortunately referee Martin Hansson reckoned minimal contact had been made. Goal-kick. Phew. And the unbooked Anelka barely complained. But any gratitude towards the Swedish ref was soon ruined by his failure to spot Henry's basketballing intervention minutes later. Digusting. Henry, you've lost a million admirers.
Oh, Portugal are through without the help of the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, they won 1-0 in Bosnia thanks to Raul Meireles to go through 2-0 on aggregate. Russia, with Andrey Arshavin's men down to nine, failed against Slovenia, going down 1-0 to go out on away goals in a 2-2 aggregate finish. Greece won 1-0 in the Ukraine to go through, so we've probably seen the last of Andrei Shevchenko.
Result of the night? That would be Algeria beating Egypt 1-0 in a hastily arranged play-off after the two North African giants finished level on all fronts at the top of their qualifying group. Antar Yahia got the only goal at the completely bonkers El Merreikh stadium in Khartoum, where 15,000 police were on duty. There were all-night parties in London's Finsbury Park as every Algerian celebrated reaching the finals for the first time since Mexico 86.
So how about the less warlike games outside of the World Cup qualifiers? David Villa scored twice as unbeatable Spain beat Austria 5-1 in Vienna. Lukas Podolski scored two as Germany - mourning the suicide of goalkeeper Robert Enke - drew 2-2 with Ivory Coast. Italy beat Sweden 1-0, the Netherlands and Paraguay drew 0-0.
Angola and Ghana also failed to create a goal, Italy saw off Sweden 1-0 and the mighty USA, seller of the most tickets for South Africa next year, went down 3-1 in Denmark. At Fulham's Craven Cottage, World Cup qualifiers South Korea were beaten 1-0 by Serbia.
And Brighton beat woeful Wycombe 2-0 to reach the FA Cup second round.