Barcelona to play in Pretoria
Brad Morgan
18 June 2007
South African Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns will get the chance to test their mettle against one of the world's most famous club sides when they face Barcelona at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on Wednesday 20 June.
Sundowns' sponsor, cellphone operator MTN, made the announcement last week. Full details of the visit will be revealed on Tuesday.
It followed on the recent news that Tottenham Hotspur will be visiting South Africa to take part in the Vodacom Challenge against local sides Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates - an annual three-way mini-tournament sponsored by MTN's arch-rival, Vodacom.
Coup
It's quite a coup to sign such a massively popular club to visit South African shores, especially as there was one final round still to be played in Spain's Primera División. Those matches took place on Sunday.
With one round to go in La Liga, Barcelona were second in the standings,
tied with leaders Real Madrid on points. Barca's goal difference was vastly superior to that of Madrid, plus-41 compared to plus-24, but things work differently in Spain to most other big leagues.
In Spain, the head-to-head results are used to determine which team finishes ahead of another if they have the same number of points. In this case, Madrid enjoyed the advantage.
World class stars
Whether or not the Catalans will bring a full strength side to South Africa remains to be seen. At best, Barcelona is a team loaded with world class stars, with none bigger than Ronaldinho, who was named Fifa World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005.
Ronaldinho's participation is questionable because he has turned down the opportunity of playing for Brazil in Barcelona's off-season, so turning out for Barca against Sundowns would probably be frowned upon by Brazilian coach Dunga.
However, any team that includes players of the stature of
Argentina's Lionel Messi, France's Lilian Thuram, Italy's Gianluca Zambrotta, Spain's Carles Puyol, Portugal's Deco, and three-time African Player of the Year Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon, is hardly one that is going to struggle in the absence of one player.
Sundowns can be grateful that the match will be in Pretoria and not at Barcelona's Camp Nou. The Catalans completed an unbeaten season in the league at their famed home fortress, which packs in just under 100 000 spectators. Average attendance this past season was 74 391 a game.
PSL title
The PSL champions, meanwhile, enjoyed a good season, running away to the league title by a 10-point margin over second-placed Silver Stars.
However, despite being the highest scorers in the league, their attack was hardly overwhelming, notching only one-and-a-half goals per game on average.
The challenge they'll face from the Catalans is huge. Underlining just how big it will be is the result of
the two clubs against Egypt's Al Ahly, a team both faced only days apart in Cairo.
Sundowns fell 2-0 to the Egyptians to be eliminated from the African Champions League. Just three days later, Barcelona thumped Al Ahly 4-0.
Barcelona honours
Barcelona is one of the most successful teams in Spanish and world club history. It boasts 18 La Liga titles, 24 Copa del Rey victories (the Spanish equivalent of the FA Cup), two Uefa Champions League titles, four Uefa Cup Winners' Cups, three Uefa Cups, and two European Super Cup trophies.
As recently as 2006, Barca won the Uefa Champions League. In 2007, they were beaten in the quarterfinals by Liverpool, who went on to play in the final against AC Milan.
It is rumoured that the cost of bringing Barcelona to South Africa is somewhere in the region of R25-million.
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