Bafana Bafana are hoping for some Madiba magic

Shortly before the 11 June World Cup opening game between South Africa and Mexico in Johannesburg, Bafana Bafana captain Aaron Mokoena and team coach Carlos Alberto Parreira will travel from their hotel to an exclusive city suburb. There they will shake hands with an old man famous for his belief in democracy.

Nelson Mandela has many talents; one of them is lifting national teams to great heights, like the 1995 Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks. South Africans call it "Madiba magic" — the special effect the first freely elected president of the country has on those he meets. While winning the World Cup is beyond Bafana Bafana, a second-round place would do nicely.

Ranked 90 in the FIFA listings, this is not a great Bafana team, but Parreira claims nothing is impossible. "Many say we will not make it, but we do not have to listen to everyone who has an opinion," he told The Times of India.

In the 11 June opening game, Mexico will face 11 South African footballers and a sell-out crowd of 90,000, many blowing plastic trumpets and transforming Soccer City Stadium into a wall of sound. Scientific tests show the vuvuzela ("to blow" in isiZulu) can cause ear damage, but FIFA has resisted requests from some of the 32 World Cup teams to ban the instrument from the 64-game football extravaganza.