Dan Gaspar

Dan Gaspar will be blogging for sportsnet.ca during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa while serving as goalkeeper coach for Team Portugal.

Portugal team member Dan Gaspar on all the vuvuzela talk and his squad's preparations for Ivory Coast.

Since the tournament kicked off last Friday, it seems like the vuvuzela horns have been one of the biggest talking points.

Team Portugal has not yet fully experienced the noise level of the vuvuvzelas so the Ivory Coast match on Tuesday will be our first taste. It's going to be very difficult to get instructions to players, nearly impossible. It makes things difficult down on the field since it eliminates communication, but that's part of the atmosphere, excitement and challenge.

I know there have been some discussions with FIFA about perhaps banning the vuvuzelas but we need to remember that we are guests in South Africa. This is part of their culture. FIFA selected this country to host this World Cup and certainly they were aware of the vuvuzelas at that time. I think to pull that away from the fans now would be inappropriate. It's part of the culture and we are guests here in South Africa.

The moment of truth for Team Portugal is just around the corner. We play our first World Cup match on Tuesday versus Ivory Coast in Port Elizabeth at the beautiful Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Our preparation could not be going any better. The group is tight. There is great cohesiveness, spirit and harmony and having played three African teams in preparation, we are full of optimism.

In preparing for a match, each player has his own ritual and routine. At this level, it's very important that players can manage their emotions and mentally prepare themselves for a game and they're all quite different. Some players like having their quiet moments while others like listening to their tunes. Some get very spiritual. Each player needs to have their space in order for them to prepare for the challenge of a World Cup game.

Our players have worked very hard physically, emotionally, mentally and tactically to meet the challenges of our World Cup opponents. The expectations are high and the demands are immense but our hope is that we realize our potential. The players and staff understand that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We cannot make any guarantees but we can promise that the players will leave everything they have on the field.

In my particular case with preparing the goalkeepers, we're getting into body and physical communication instead of verbal communication. And that's why it's so important to prepare these things in training. When you have these routines, then the verbal communication is not so crucial before and during a match. My warm-up takes 23 minutes with the goalkeeper and he knows exactly what we're going to do. We don't need to communicate it verbally.

In terms of the action on the field so far, I think Germany has been the most impressive. Not only were they able to score four goals in their opening match, but they did it in a very impressive way. I also thought South Korea was very good against Greece. South Korea was disciplined and organized. They attacked and defended with speed. Their transition was seamless and Greece had no solution for them. I think South Korea might make some noise here.

Dan Gaspar is the head coach of the University of Hartford men's soccer team and founder of the Star Goalkeeper Academy. Watch for Gaspar's blogs throughout the World Cup as he provides a perspective of what it's like to be on the pitch and in the clubhouse as part of the coaching staff with Team Portugal in South Africa.