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- Team statictics
Group-A
South africa(1) – mexico(1)
Match Drown
South Africa vs Mexico kicks-off our series of World Cup development scorecards, prepared by the Africa Progress Panel for their ‘Scoring for Africa’ report. The two countries have much in common, but could do more when it comes to trade, migration and crime.
Attempts on target
Governance: South Africa and Mexico have much in common. Both are emerging powers, members of the G20, and play a leading role in current climate change negotiations, with Mexico hosting the UNFCCC Sixteenth Conference of the Parties (CoP 16) in december 2010, and South Africa hosting the subsequent CoP meeting in 2011. In intergovernmental bodies like the un and its specialized agencies, both countries are valued as constructive members.
Bilateral cooperation: in April 2010, South Africa and Mexico decided to strengthen their ties. given that they face very similar economic challenges, the countries are now trying to coordinate their recovery strategies and forge new trade alliances to keep their economies afloat (Source: southafricainfo.org).
Entrepreneurship: During a period of undersupply in tequila, South African entrepreneurs grasped the opportunity to become the only producers of agave spirits outside of Mexico. While the name “tequila” is protected under international trade laws and can only be used by Mexico, South African agave spirits, produced in graaff-reinet in the eastern Cape are exported all around the world (Source: South Africa Trade Info).
Tourism: Both countries are very popular tourist destinations. Catering to slightly different clienteles, both make use of their long coastlines (9,330km for Mexico and 2,798km for South Africa) and beautiful landscapes to attract growing numbers of visitors. For South Africa’s tourism industry, the World Cup is a major opportunity to draw attention to the country’s beauty and plentiful sights.
Attempts off target
Trade: There is enormous scope for increasing the volume and quality of trade between the two countries. South Africa’s imports from Mexico have grown over the last years, but they still only add up to around 0.3% of its total imports. Similarly, only around 0.3% of South Africa’s exports are going to Mexico, composing barely 0.05% of Mexico’s total imports. (Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs South Africa)
Migration: Migration is a big issue for both South Africa and Mexico. Both face substantial in- and out- flows of people in search of better lives. South Africa is a major destination of migrants from across all of Africa, but it is also losing many of its best-educated in a brain-drain. Many Mexicans leave their homes to migrate to other parts of north America, particularly the uS where they make up as much as 12% of the total population. Both countries could learn from each others’ experiences, yet current exchanges are scarce.
Crime: Both South Africa and Mexico are suffering from high levels of criminal activity, including drugs, kidnappings, murders, theft and rapes. While South Africa has been ranked as the country with the most rapes per capita, Mexico has one of the highest rates of kidnappings in the world and is struggling with drug related violence (Sources: NationMaster Crime statistics, BBC News Country Profiles).
Uruguay(0) – France(0)
Match Drown
GSM) – Uruguay and France will kick off their World Cup campaign in Cape Town. The group A match is a collision between two former World Champions: Uruguay has won the tournament twice (1930 and 1950) while France were crowned World Champions once, in 1998.
Both countries struggled to make it to South Africa: both needed play-offs to secure their World Cup tickets, La Celeste beat Costa Rica (0-1, 1-1) while Thierry Henry’s famous hand ball guided Les Bleus past sorry Ireland in the European play-offs.
Both countries will meet each other for the third time at the World Cup stage. In 1966 Uruguay were the better team as they downed France in the group stage (2-1). Eight years ago, Thierry Henry’s red card highlighted their group match which ended 0-0 and initiated France’s elimination.
France and coach Raymond Domenech suffered a lot of citicism ahead of the tournament. Domenech was criticised for not including Manchester City’s Patrick Vieira and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema in his World Cup squad. The disappointing results ahead of the tournament will no doubt worry Domenech, who saw how his side only managed to draw against Tunisia (1-1) while they were stunned by China: 1-0.
To add to Domenech’s problems, William Gallas has refused to speak to the French media for the whole tournament and Florent Malouda, Djibril Cisse and Sidney Govou have all questioned their coach’s tactics, although he has not been helped by the injury-enforced withdrawal of defensive midfielder Lassana Diarra.
With France seemingly in disarray, it looks to be the perfect opportunity for Uruguay to start the tournament at a high. Coach Oscar Tabarez has little worries as he has a fully fit squad with Diego Forlan returning from a minor injury.
He will pair up with Luis Suarez up front, as Tabarez already revealed his starting XI, two days before the match. European top clubs will keep an eye on Suarez as he made a name for himself by scoring 35 times for Ajax this season. Along with Atletico Madrid hitman Forlan he will be a plague for France’s back line which is likely to feature Gallas alongside Eric Abidal at the centre.
A remarkable duo as Abidal is used to play at the left-back position at his club, Barcelona. We will see what the consequence of this decision will be when Uruguay and France kick off at 20.30 CET.
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