Harry Redknapp's Joker in Steven Pienaar

With the ridiculously priced £3million accepted, Steven Pienaar's signature confirmed and enhanced Harry Redknapp's reputation as the premier wheeler dealer manager of the Barclays Premier League. Once again, Harry Redknapp effortlessly adds established stars to his Spurs squad. 'Arry just cannot resist a deal, can he?

Spurs is a club on the up and it is understandable that Pienaar would be excited to play for a side who can be a surprise Champions League winner. There is an inconsistency within Spurs and Pienaar will address that weakness. I believe Aaron Lennon's first team place could be in jeopardy with the arrival of the little South African.

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Confederations Cup Match Report: South Africa 2 – 0 New Zealand

Image from Associated Press

The match report as seen from a South African football fan perspective...

Tonight Bafana Bafana made me proud to be a South African Soccer supporter. After all the grief we (South African soccer fans) have to put up with, it was great to see such a positive performance from the National Team.

Tonight the team played like South Africa. The flair, the skill, the passion and pace sorely lacking in the previous game against Iraq were there in abundance tonight. The final score may have been 2-0 in favour of Bafana but it could easily have been 4-0 or 5-0 if Masegho had his scoring boots on tonight and were it not for a string of great saves from the New Zealand keeper Moss.

Santana came into this match under a lot of pressure but he will have silenced his critics after this performance. Bafana were buzzing in attack tonight, 20 shots at goal verifies this. But it wasn't just the shots on target which impressed me. It was the way the team played with total belief in their abilities, little flicks and tricks were the order of the night as the likes of Pienaar and Modise ran riot. Tshepo Masilele was an absolute joy to watch down the left flank and he will surely have attracted attention from scouts at the tournament with a man of the match display.

Bernard Parker was the star...{Read on to find out how the match progressed}



This report is featured on SA Football Fans.
Also available from here are the video highlights of the match.

Confederations Cup Match Report: South Africa 0 – 0 Iraq

image from Associated Press

Bafana Bafana can consider themselves unlucky not to have picked up three points against Iraq in the opening game of the Fifa Confederations Cup at Ellis Park Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Joel Santana opted to go with a similar starting 11 that defeated Poland 1-0 last weekend, with left back Tsepho Masilele coming in for Innocent Mdledle and Teko Modise for Pienaar being the only changes.

The game got off to a lively start as striker Tembinkhosi Fanteni picked up a yellow card in the first minute after a crunching tackle on Karrar Jasim. It soon settled down though, with Bafana struggling to string together passes as the Iraqi players quickly closed down the space. Jasim had the first chance of the game with a speculative shot from distance which Khune comfortably saved.

Bernard Parker had South Africa’s first effort on goal with a weak shot from outside the box. Holding midfielder Macbeth Sibaya had our best chance of the opening 45 minutes when he unleashed a powerful shot from 30 yards out which the Iraqi keeper did well to tip over for a corner in the 13th minute. That was the only real highlights of a dull and uneventful first half which ended 0-0 at the break.

Bafana started the second half much better...{Read more about the frustration of South Africa}

This report is featured at SA Football Fans