Latest Update from South Africa (07/06/10)

Manchester City supporter, Mariner aka Mike who lives in South Africa sent Vital Man City the very latest World Cup update.

England take on local Premier League team Platinum Stars tonight in a last 'friendly' game. Apparently Capello has said that every member of the squad will get at least forty five minutes on the pitch but am not sure if this includes Gareth Barry, although he has been in full training.

Far from regarding this as a friendly, Stars are putting out their full strength team and have vowed to get stuck in - injuries we do not need at this stage.

Latest on the Benni McCarthy dropping is that he and one of the goalkeepers were caught entertaining a young lady in their hotel room and were promptly cut from the final team. Be that as it may he was never fit enough either.

I mentioned the potential electricity workers strike in my last message, and the latest today is essential industry or not, they are going to arbitration and if not settled by the end of the week they may still embark on strike action. Probably not related, but we had a blackout last night covering a large section of Durban.

Manchester City FC has quite a large presence here now, along with their three English players we have Tevez. Boateng, De Jong and possibly Weiss as well?

In my last mail but cut out (don't know if the VMC editor obliterated the reference to the USA) was the fact that my youth was blighted by a certain result from Belo Horizonte and a goal scored by Eddie Gaetjens in 1950. Please no repetition in our first game, although they played ominously well in beating Australia 3-1.

More South Africa World Cup updates as soon as I have.

Mariner

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