The Castle Super Fan Camp in Full Swing!

The Castle Lager Super Fan Camp is in full swing! it started yesterday around 3pm when all the winners arrived.


The evening help some fabulous entertainment, with a locker room session and speeches from some football legends! Neil Tovey, Mark Fish and Steve Kompela where all there to share their footballing experience.

The evening was a huge party with the Castle Lager flowing. The music was provided by TKZEE and he was inspirational!

Lets see what today hold in the Camp!

Inqaba!

Superfans go to Polokwane for Bafana vs Guatamala: - a Super Fan Account

We were waiting at the parking lot in Mafikeng for the Premier of the North West to arrive to meet us, The Castle Lager Superfans, when we got the call. The question was quite rhetorical in it’s context and considering it was directed at some of the most ardent bafana supporters: “Do you want to go to the bafana game in Polokwane tomorrow?” The answer sounded like bafana had just scored the opening World Cup goal, and this after weeks of arduous traveling around the country spreading the message of uniting behind bafana bafana, giving out supporters gear and generally getting the masses of people we met hyped up for the world cup.




Monday the 31st of May was designated our well-deserved off day but we happily zipped up our bags again in the morning to go back to the people of Polokwane - whom we had “activated” just a few days before! We hopped back into our two beautifully customized superfans combis in our settled formation: This is a 3-3-2-2 system and seems to work best mostly because that’s where the seats in the combi are. We have Jones of Supersport, Siza of Jomo Cosmos and our manager Thami in the back. Myself (Borotho of Wits), Botha (needs no introduction!) and Somi the Vuvuzela Minstrel of Black Aces take up the middle. Umfundisi of Amazulu and Mzekezeke of Sundowns Keep things alive near the front while Lutchman from Maritzburg waves the flag, lowers the volume when an “interview” (normally just a phone call) is received by someone and keeps an eye on Eddy behind the wheel.



We arrived in Polokwane safely with no major travel disruptions (eg. Someone taking too long in the shops or taking too long to take photos with the fans of the fans) and checked into the very architecturally successful (in my point of view) Protea hotel - Polokwane. The Guatamala team walked by while we were checking in and we resisted the temptation to let rip on the vuvuzelas in order to increase the shock when they ran out on the field later! After a very good dinner with Errol Madlala of Castle Sports Marketing we each donned our unique match clothing and lucky charms and headed for the stadium. A supersport cameraman climbed into our van on the way to the game to get a feel for the vibe in our combi on the way to the game. Other local padestrian supporters joined in singing with us in the slow moving traffic and you could feel the intensity build as we approached the glowing stadium. In the traffic the two combis got split up because the individuals in each combis spoke to different “connections” to get us into 2 different levels of VIP parkings!! The superfans got split once more at the ticket scanners where large queues caused dispersal into different lines and we ended up with about 3 groups of superfans in separate parts of the stadium when guatamala emerged from the tunnel to the vuvuzela thunderstorm. It was quite clear in the crowd where the groups of superfans were because of a greater intensity of movement and noise for hundreds of seats around a superfan cluster. I was with Mzion, Ntshebe, Lefu, Rasta2 and Lutchman behind the guatamalan keeper – the place where fans wishing to remain standing traditionally go. We were blessed to witness, up close, first Mphela’s penalty then Yeye Letsholonyane’s clinical finish of Lucas Thwala’s cross and the signature goal of Parreiras Wing-back attack system. Then in the 2nd half in between the superb goals of Moriri, Parker and another Mphela penalty we saw how effective Pienaar’s positioning was in creating width and opportunity for the wing backs, really helping to liven up the whole bafana attacking machine. We also got a close-up of Josephs superb reading of the Guatamalan penalty to keep a clean sheet and further all the supporters confidence in him.



After the game while dancing around the emptying stadium and meeting up with all the other Superfans we got pulled aside by the same Supersport cameraman for an interview for Supersport Blitz. All the superfans had some very insightful views of the game and we were full of energy, carrying on singing and vuvuzelaring long into the night.