Pretoria - Thousands of colourful Bafana Bafana fans have started arriving at Loftus Versfeld Stadium ahead of the highly anticipated clash between the national team and Uruguay this evening.
Bafana go to the match glowing with confidence after their brilliant performance against Mexico at Soccer City stadium last week. Both the players and Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira are confident following the opening match draw against Mexico. In what promises to be a cold night at the stadium, fans streaming to Loftus had mixed feelings about the game with those less optimistic even predicting a draw. "I think its going to end with 0-0 or if the players from both side are lucky to score it will be 1-1," said Melumzi Mzaca of Soshanguve, outside Pretoria. He predicted that Katlego Mphela will open the score for Bafana.
Itumeleng Thobejane of Johannesburg also predicted a 2 all draw between Bafana and the South Americans. But one hopeful Bafana fan from Laudium, Morne Le Roux, thinks Parreira's boys are going to do wonders. "We are beating Uruguay 2-0 no doubt about that," he said holding a now popular placard with the words South African menu. In the "menu" placard, Paraguay is teasingly referred to as "lunch" while Mexico is named "breakfast" with France referred to as "dinner". But it appears that the provoking placards and mock coffins do little to intimidate some Uruguayan fans as they are peacefully entering the stadium displaying the same confidence for their team. "Go Uruguay" "We are the victors" read some of the placards.
Meanwhile, both the park and ride and park and walk facilities are reportedly progressing smoothly as envisaged by city officials. Supporters who spoke to BuaNews said apart from minor delays, they have not experienced any serious logistical problems.
The LC de Villiers Sports Grounds at the University of Pretoria, Unisa and Rugby Sports Union Grounds on the corner of Totius and Welheminah streets are some of the park and ride facilities that have been made available to the public by the City of Tshwane.
Fans coming from Johannesburg, Midrand, Ekurhuleni, North West as well as those coming from west of the City (Atteridgeville, Mabopane, Soshanguve, and Rustenburg) were encouraged to make use of the Unisa park and ride facility.
Those from the eastern suburbs of the city were advised to park their cars at the Rugby Union Sports Grounds while people coming from the north (Hammanskraal and Limpopo) and east (including Mpumalanga) were encouraged to use the LC De Villiers Sports Grounds.
