With the 2010 Soccer World Cup coming, the first South African soccer name you have to know is Bafana Bafana, the name of the South African National Soccer Team.

Bafana Bafana simply means ‘the boys the boys.’ The female South African Soccer Team is known as Bayana Bayana, appropriately enough it means ‘the girls the girls.’

South African soccer fans have their own passionate way of talking about the beautiful game.

So in the build-up to the 2010 Fifa World Cup, Molo will introduce you to some of the most widely used South African expressions, lingo and ‘sokker taal’ (soccer language) you will need to know.

The under 23 South African football team are known as the Amagluglug (sound of guzzling) which is a  joke reference to the South African Petrol company, Sasol, that sponsors the team and gives it the drive to succeed.

The first thing you will notice at any South African soccer game is the sound of the Vuvezela a long plastic trumpet that you will come to know as the sound of 2010.

If a goal is scored you are likely to hear soccer commentators and soccer fans shouting ‘Laduuuuuuuma’! (la-doo-mah) as soon as the ball hits the back of the net.

An ‘eShibobo’ is when a clever striker sticks the ball through the middle of the opponent’s legs, in Europe it is called a nutmeg. A ‘bazooka’ is style of shot which is pretty self evident.

Laduma is Zulu for ‘it thunders’, or ‘thunder coming through’..(now that’s eloquence for you ne?). One reason why we call 2010 an ‘African World Cup’, it is going to be full of character!

Molo Says: “Read more about the 10 Host Cities of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Our 2010 Google Earth Map of South Africa displays many soccer locations for the world cup, and will show soccer projects and soccer tours in South Africa automatically in the future.

Download it once, and it will update automatically in the next years!”

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