It is the 34th anniversary of the June 16 uprisings, when schoolchildren in Soweto revolted against the use of Afrikaans as amedium of instruction at school in 1976.

But all eyes will be fixed on Bafana as they seek to make history by advancing to the second round of the World Cup finals since their firstattempt during the 1998 tournament, hosted and won by France.

The air in Pretoria is thick with anticipation as fans in South Africa’s administrative capital gather for do-or-die match for coachCarlos Alberto Parreira’s men.

After failing to make it to the knockout stages during the 1998 and 2002 World Cup tournaments, Bafana are being willed by fans to advancefurther in this tournament.

The interest shown in Bafana’s training sessions this week says one thing – do us proud when you face Uruguay.

“Uruguay are a very good team and they showed that when they played against France last week,” Parreira said “It’s very clear that we needto win one game, but that won’t mean that we have qualified for the last16.

“Our approach will be a little bit different to the one we used against Mexico. Uruguay have a different approach to the game and thisis going to be a more challenging match for us.”

The Brazilian-born coach has indicated he might change his team for the Uruguay showdown.
Parreira was forced to pull out Lucas Thwala for Tsepo Masilela afterthe Orlando Pirates player struggled to contain the Mexicans.

Meanwhile, Bafana captain Aaron Mokoena has agreed with Parreira that Bafana must make South Africans proud tonight.