The world has been waiting four years for FIFA World Cup 2010, and today at 8am EST, South Africa welcomed more than a billion viewers to the biggest tournament in soccer!
Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium opened its doors to the world and kicked off the World Cup party with a world-class spectacle featuring a mix of African culture, music and dance as well as some international stars.
On what is a very sad note, former South African President Nelson Mandela was unable to attend the ceremonies following the tragic death of his 13-year-old great-granddaughter in a car crash Thursday night returning from the kick off concert.
The extravaganza started with hundreds of African dancers in yellow, red, blue and green forming nine radial lines pointing to the stadiums where the matches will be played.
Angelique Kidjo, Grammy award winning singer led dancers onto the field to spread the message of brotherhood, hope and love to the crowd, and moved to form the African continent, with the announcer stating that Africa is the cradle of humanity, and that the world has returned home.
A parade of the participating World Cup country flags entered the stadium along with more dancers. Desmond Tutu and the the crowd of over 90,000 fans at Soccer City Stadium where dancing, singing and making one amazing, glorious noise.
Next, R. Kelly performed his FIFA World Cup anthem “Sign of a Victory.” with the Soweto Gospel Choir. Famous for his uplifting song, “I Believe I Can Fly”, Kelly clearly struck a chord with the crowd with the song. Then, a crowd of kids spilled onto the field to spell out the 32 participating coutry names, with flags spinning in the background. Then the crowd on the performance area formed the official FIFA 2010 World Cup logo before running off the field.
The matches start today with host team South Africa facing off at 4pm EST against a confident Mexican team. South Africa’s Bafana Bafana (the Boys! the Boys!) have never won a World Cup final game, and they’re heading into the tournament with the weight of their country’s expectations on their shoulders. Mexico is a strong team,but South Africa is expected to perform well under the pressure and make the next round. Don’t count South Africa out — remember, the South African rugby team beat the odds to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup and help to unite their country. The 2009 movie Invictus is the touching underdog story brought to the big screen.
Will the South African squad hold up under the weight of their country’s expectations? Will Mexico break their streak of underwhelming World Cup showings?
Watch the 2010 World Cup Drama unfold!
