FanHouse SouthAfrica

For about 85 minutes Thursday it looked like lady luck would shine her fortune upon the underdogs for the second consecutive day at the Confederations Cup semifinals. Host South Africa was giving powerhouse Brazil all it could handle, continuously stymieing the five-time world champions all across the field in Johannesburg.

Yet it all came crashing down in an instant for the determined Bafana Bafana thanks to a moment of brilliance generated off the foot of Brazil sub Dani Alves, who had only entered the match a few minutes earlier. The Barcelona back curled in a perfect free kick in the 87th minute around the South African wall to push Brazil to a 1-0 victory and a date with the United States in Sunday's final.

It's Spain's world, the rest of us are all just living in it. Saturday in the Confederations Cup, Spain dispatched hosing South Africa 2-0 on goals from David Villa and Fernando Llorente.

The win extended Spain's unbeaten run to an astounding 35 games, which ties the all time mark set by Brazil in the early 1990s. Perhaps even more impressive is that Spain has won its last 15 matches during the streak to set a world record there as well. Nobody is even close to Spain's level, although they haven't exactly played the world's toughest team's yet in this tournament.

Earlier this week, Peter Godwin wrote this scathing editorial in the New York Times about South African president Thabo Mbeki's implicit support of Robert Mugabe's repressive regime in Zimbabwe, which sits on the northern border of South Africa.

As Godwin wrote, Mugabe has rigged elections and used torture and death squads to remain in power in Zimbabwe. While the rest of the world wishes to delegitimize Mugabe's regime, Mbeki has quietly supported it. He was photographed here with Mugabe on an official visit to Zimbabwe -- reportedly while some of Mugabe's opponents were being tortured or killed. What's more, South Africa has a seat on the United Nations Security Council, and Mbeki has blocked all attempts to put the situation in Zimbabwe on the agenda.

Godwin's solution is to threaten to pull the 2010 FIFA World Cup from the country. He suggests that protests to FIFA could apply some political pressure to Mbeki to stop supporting Mugabe.

Apparently, Mr. Godwin is entirely unfamiliar with FIFA president Sepp Blatter.