African hopes soar before World Cup kick-off

Spain and Brazil are favourites for the world's most widely-watched sporting tournament, which has never produced a winner outside Europe or South America.

Millions of Africans, though, are praying one of their six teams here can break that, or at least go further than Cameroon and Senegal's quarter-final showings in 1990 and 2002 in the FIFA World Cup.

Injuries and tough groups, however, mean there is a real risk all the Africans may fall at the first round hurdle.

South Africa's "Bafana Bafana" (The Boys) are the lowest-ranked African team at the tournament, but have fanatical ranks of vuvuzela-blowing locals - and a recent unbeaten run of 12 games - to lift them.

"As it gets nearer to kickoff, the nerves are beginning," admitted South Africa striker Bernard Parker.

Their opening game will take place in front of 90,000 people, and millions worldwide, in the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg, which resembles a calabash or African pot.

Africa's most famous son Nelson Mandela held his first rally at Soccer City in 1990 after 27 years in jail and the hosts hope the tournament will showcase the new country he helped shape after decades of apartheid and foreign isolation.

The hosts inaugurated Africa's first high speed urban train in Johannesburg on Tuesday, just in time to help fans bypass the city's notorious traffic jams.

While infrastructure preparations by the hosts have broadly gone smoothly, a stampede inuring 15 people at a Nigeria-North Korea friendly on Sunday was a reminder of risks on a continent where football is often chaotically run.

In other pre-tournament incidents, New Zealand cut short a training session due to smoke from a nearby poor township, and Australia moved from a pitch their coach described as hopeless.

South Africa is confident, though, that years of spending and preparation will bear fruit and help banish the usual stereotypes of poverty and hunger associated with Africa.

"South Africa has come alive and will never be the same again after this World Cup," President Jacob Zuma said.