By Gavin Hunt
The World Cup thus far...
What a great weekend of football we've had. I thought the opening ceremony was brilliant and we as South Africans should feel proud.
Watching the matches so far, I've made a few observations...
The teams have struggled to adapt to the ball as it is very lively and bouncy and you can see with the quality of the crossing, shooting and passing that it's going to take time for them to adapt to the ball.
For me, there have been a few stand-out sides over the weekend.
I thought Argentina played really well and Germany were impressive. Argentina missed a lot of opportunities, but that is not always a bad thing. We can certainly expect a lot more from them in the coming games and it looked like they could create opportunities at will, a sign of really good side for me.
Lionel Messi could have had a hat-trick but it was unbelievable to watch him play on African soil, and if that's how he played in his first game, we are in for some really exciting football from Messi and Argentina.
The Germans moved the ball with such fluency and precision and it was great to watch, even though they played against an ageing, slow Australian team.
For me, it is a blessing in disguise that Michael Ballack is not in the team and I think Germany with their youth, energy and organisation, have certainly got to be one of the semifinalists.
I thought Thomas Mueller and Lukas Podolski were the stars. The coach used his squad well and did the right thing by bringing on some players with less experience once the game was won.
It's great that Ghana are the first African team to win a game in this African World Cup. They played a well-organised and structured game and were worthy winners. They even left some well-known players on the bench!
Here's the plan...
I though Bafana finished the game against Mexico well and hopefully they can continue that on Wednesday.
Uruguay are a different type of team to play against - different to Mexico.
They play a more traditional 4-4-2 formation and the two strikers are dangerous. They have great movement, they compliment each other well and they both have a good eye for goal.
Bafana need to move the ball quickly, play good combination football, and use our speed and agility to open up their defence to create opportunities for us to score goals.
I don't think we should play Steven Pienaar, Siphiwe Tshabalala and Teko Modise in the same team.
Pienaar should play in the wide area with Tshabalala in the other wide area and one of Bernard Parker or Surprise Moriri should partner Katlego Mphela.
Also, Bafana must not get into a physical battle with Uruguay. They must rather use their speed to outplay them.
On the whole, the World Cup is still wide open and there are going to be a few BIG upsets.
Till next time,
Gavin Hunt