I intended to watch South Africa play Angola on Wednesday, but when I got down to Shepherds Bush, I discovered that the South African pub had changed into a Moroccan restaurant. After my experiences this evening maybe I know why. For the South Africa v Tunisia game I decided to check out the Bok Bar, a South African dive-bar in Bedford Way WC2 in the heart of Covent Garden.

I got there really early and witnessed the celebrations of a Sheffield United fan as his team defeated Man City 2-1. There was a group of South Africans at the next table who were well-oiled, like everyone else in the place, and we chatted briefly about the impending game but they surprised me by disappearing an hour before kick-off. I enjoyed the second half of the Senegal v Angola game as the latter fought back from 0-1 to 3-1 and I’d say Angola are a team to watch with lots of great runs down the wings and pin-point crosses that produced two fine headed goals. After that game I watched a little of the game between Barcelona and our Basque cousins Athletic Bilbao, who of course were founded by Sunderland guys and play in red and white stripes.

When the South Africa game kicked off at 7.30 I was the only person in the bar watching it. There was a bunch of very drunk Americans down the other end, one of whom was apprehended helping himself behind the bar when the manager returned from having a fag upstairs. For the whole of the first-half only two other punters showed brief interest in the match but the manager switched on a speaker above my head especially for my benefit. He told me his customers were only interested in rugby and cricket. Maybe it’s because nearly all the South African team are black while the majority of South Africans over here are white and there are different sporting traditions going on.

As for the football, Tunisia had a great first-half and finished it 3-0 up. They were strong, athletic and very well organized while South Africa, who are coached by Brazil’s Carlos Pereira, reminded me of the Lads i.e they had a lot of impressive approach play but gifted Tunisia two goals through horrendous defensive errors and were very ineffective in the final third. Brazilian born Dos Santos was the main man for Tunisia with a great headed goal in the 8 th minute when the South African defence stood around and watched him and another in the 33 rd when a terrible back-pass to the goalie allowed him to nip in and score the third. A minute before that Ben Saada had got the second after Dos Santos had hit the post. We’d lost the signal for a minute or two shortly before that and were suddenly confronted by ‘the Antiques Road-Show’ before normal service was resumed.

For South Africa number 15 Zuba, who I was pleased to see was maintaining the Eddy Grant tradition of black guys with blonde hair, had a great shot that was tipped over just before Tunisia’s first goal. In the 37 th minute they also had a great header against the bar but that was about the sum of their serious efforts in that half. As far as I could see, there were very few empty seats in the stadium, unlike at the other matches I’ve seen so far. No doubt this was because two of the most affluent countries in Africa were playing.

Having hoped to enjoy the company of a crowd of South Africans for this match, I was disappointed to be sitting there watching it alone so at the break I supped up and headed off round the corner to the Walkabout in Henrietta Place. This is a regular haunt of backpackers, mainly from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and so I hoped for a bit more interest in the match. There was a decent crowd there and many T.V. screens but having got a pint of Carlsberg in and propped myself against the bar I could see that two different games were being shown on different screens - the other being Real Madrid v Villareal - and also that nobody else was showing any sustained interest in either game. There was no audible commentary and, anyway, around the 65 th minute a live duo started up playing covers of popular songs.

In the second-half Tunisia took more of a back seat but still threatened on occasions and I don’t know how Dos Santos failed to get his hat-trick in the 65 th minute when he missed an absolute sitter. He was substituted a minute later. South Africa kept blasting it high over the bar and had clearly never read Roy of the Rovers, who always said that you had to get your body over the ball, but just as I was saying to myself that they couldn’t hit a barn do… they went and pulled one back three minutes from time when Everton’s Pianaar did the hard work before Mphela slotted it home.

South Africa are surely not going to qualify for the next round of this competition and as they’re hosting the next World Cup in 2010, they need to get it together before then. This was a dull evening but tomorrow (Monday) I’m taking the road to Morocco… well, the Ladbroke Grove end.

ALS Books click here