Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Vuvuzela horn


During the World Cup this year held in South Africa, the heated debate of the restriction of the Vuvuzela horn this year is still ongoing. Both spectators and players have complained about the noise given out by the Vuvuzela horn. For spectators from other countries, the horn disrupts the peace needed to watch a football match and for players down in the pitch, many of them would have a wavered concentration and poor performance due to the high noise level. Even after the game, players would not be able to get enough sleep because there would still be an incessant tooting of the horn from another match away from the hotel.

The good points of the horn are as follows:

1) The horns are a motivational force which drives the players of South Africa to fight on for their country.

2) The horns, if used properly, can be a musical instrument that produces good and loud monotone music.

3) It gives a European feel to the atmosphere.

The bane:

1) The horn disrupts peace and quiet.

2) The horn gives players who are not use to the sound a poor performance and disables them from communicating within the pitch.

3) The horn might lead to poor hearing or loss of hearing because of the decibals it releases.

All in all, I feel that the FIFA officials should put a ban on the use of the Vuvuzela horn because performance would be sharply sliced.

Posted by Ho Siu Joon Jones at 2:50 AM

Sunday, June 13, 2010

FIFA Fever

The World Cup is a few days away. I cannot wait for it. Although the FIFA world cup TV viewing package requires an extravagant $70 subscription fee, I am willing to fork out the money but I am still a child. J. Buying the Straits Times everyday to read and find out about the latest happenings in South Africa is a sacrifice I should make to keep abreast with the matches.

The opening match would be South Africa versus Mexico. The two teams are equally rivaled and it can prove to be a good match-up. If Africa wins, this would prove that the country is capable of hosting the FIFA world cup. However, if Mexico emerges victorious, South Africa would have to put in more effort into the subsequent games.

I am rooting for Argentina this time round because Lionel Messi is a player for his home team there. Lionel Messi comes from Barcelona Football Club (FCB) and I support that club very much. Lionel Messi is also one of the top players in the world, this adds on to how much confidence I have for Argentina to win.

Let me give you a brief introduction of World Cup.

The title to host championship has been awarded every four years to different countries since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not contested because of World War II. The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about a month. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation. Brazil has won the World Cup a record number of 5 times, followed by Italy with 4, and Germany with 3.

Italy, the defending champions, does not seem to have any chance of winning. Hopefully England's Wayne Rooney will try to curb his temper or else England's hope of the title will disappear into thin air.

I hope Singapore would have a chance to host the FIFA world cup one of these years.

Posted by Ho Siu Joon Jones at 12:03 AM