Day Two

Impressed at the Grand Parade

Masutane Modjadji is impressed by the spectacle as an exhibition game for women warm up the crowd before South Africa clash with Brazil.

The South African team was treated to a grand opening ahead of their clash with the Brazilian team on the second day of the Homeless World Cup.

 

Players from the PSL's Kaizer Chiefs team and their coach Ernest Middendorp took to the pitch before kick-off to show their support to Bafowethu.

 

First to grace the pitch were the South African ladies soccer players to pledge their support to ‘Our Brothers’ as the host nation set out to win the Homeless World Cup.

 

The women's team was  made up of several players from across various townships in the Western Cape organized by soccer veteran Desiree Ellis from the Hot Spurs soccer team and ex Banyana Banyana. The women played a warm up game and gave the supporters a thrilling match to cheer on.

 

Then came the main event, South Africa ended up losing by a small margin to the deserving Brazilian side with an end score of 6-5.

 

Desiree said it is an honour for the ladies to be given an opportunity to showcase their talent and  to make people realize that the tournament is not meant for men only.

 

"If we want to win a battle against poverty we have to support any program that is aimed at removing our kids from the streets and in this case the Homeless World Cup helps remove people from streets through soccer."

 

One of the players from the  from the South African ladies team , Tamara Dlayedwa (17), from Gugulethu, said she has no doubt in her mind about Bafowethu's ability to represent our country no matter how tough their competition. .

"Our guys are great and they played did well against Brazil despite their loss at the end," said the young girl who has been playing street soccer since the age of eleven. "And they only lost by one goal."

 

Like many supporters who braved Monday's wet weather conditions to come and support their teams at the Parade, Dlayedwa and Ellis, who is also a professional soccer commentator, have expressed their confidence in the team.

 

But regardless of their country's results they all agree the tournament is about the glory of the competition for the players and that at the end there can only be one winner.