Search: ' Ajax Cape Town'

Some of the biggest global websites rely entirely on contributions from users. Ian Plenderleith looks at what two of them have to offer football fans and finds some artificial community spirit elsewhere

Going in to the “soccer” section of YouTube is a little like entering a massive second-hand record shop that has no categories or alphabetical order. You feel a shimmer of excitement, knowing there’s probably some good stuff in there somewhere, and possibly even everything you want. The difficulty, though, is wading through all the crap to find it.

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England's next opponents, South Africa, have problems that go further than the football pitch, says  John Perlman

By the time Benedict McCarthy set off for the African under-20 championships in Morocco last month, he had just seven South African Premier league games under his belt. By the end of the tournament in which his five goals had taken South Africa to the final – they lost 1-0 to the hosts – the young striker from Cape Town’s “coloured” townships was having to get his brain round a bewildering array of choices: Ajax? Feyenoord? Milan?

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Sunday 1 England beat Moldova 3-0. "We came here with a few banana skins lying about and sidestepped them," says Glenn, whose metaphors might need a bit of working on.

Tuesday 3 Sheff Wed extend their lead at the top to five points after a 2-1 home win over Leicester, the first of their two coming from 'teenage sensation' Richie Humphreys who now has three in four games. "He came, he saw, and (guess…) he conquered," says David Pleat.

Wednesday 4 Never a dull moment for George Graham. Both he and Frank Clark are to help Norwegian police with their enquiries into the business activities of agent provocateur Rune Hauge, facing jail on fraud charges. Colchester stage the come back of the night in the Coke Cup First Round – 3-2 down from the first leg they win 3-1 at West Brom. Southend lose 3-2 on aggregate to Fulham and Reading's first-ever visit to Wycombe ends in a 2-0 defeat. Internazionale's Nwankwo Kanu may have to retire due to a heart condition spotted during a medical following his move to Milan from Ajax.

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Thursday 1 The US win the women's football tournament at the Olympics, beating China… Patrik Berger finally signs for Liverpool after weeks of negotiations, the sticking point being whether he would be contractually obliged to go nightclubbing with Robbie 'n' Jamie 'n' Macca every Saturday. Terry Venables declines an offer to become joint owner of Portsmouth, saying that the club will need to clear their debts before he is prepared to get involved. There's a joke in there somewhere.

Friday 2 Blackburn deny that they are about to spend a hefty wedge of the Shearer money on Ajax's Patrick Kluivert. So a deal must be imminent. Celtic are fined £42,000 for dealing with an unlicensed agent, Bruce Rioch's brother, Neil, when buying Alan Stubbs from Bolton, and Stubbs is also fined. Hove Council vote against Brighton's plans to build a new stadium and shopping complex at, ahem, Toad's Hole Valley. Brighton chairman Bill Archer says that a groundshare with Portsmouth now seems likely for 1997-98 (assuming, of course that Portsmouth are still in existence).

Saturday 3 Nigeria become the first African team to win an Olympic gold, beating Argentina 3-2 with a goal from Emmanuel Amunike in the last minute. Brazil have to make do with the bronze after a 5-0 win over Portugal.

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