Dundee United goalkeeper Dusan Pernis will be delighted if the drone of the vuvuzela is not heard during the club’s trip to Northern Ireland.
The Tangerines’ number one and his team-mates are in Belfast to face Glentoran today for their latest pre-season friendly.
While he would love there to be a good atmosphere inside the Oval, having spent the bulk of his summer at the World Cup in South Africa with the troublesome trumpet as background noise, he will be happy if he doesn’t hear one ever again.
“Please, no more vuvuzelas I have had enough of them,” said Pernis, who was Slovakia’s second-choice goalkeeper during a creditable campaign that saw the tournament debutants beat defending champions Italy in the group stage and only lose narrowly to eventual finalists Holland in the last 16.
“I certainly hope there will be none at United’s matches next season. I want to get away from them.”
He added, “You could not hear the crowd cheering and instead it was just like listening to a giant bee.
“It was buzz, buzz, buzz all the time.””Fantastic experience”Frustratingly for Pernis, the form of first-choice Jan Mucha meant he did not get game action but he was still thrilled to be involved in the greatest show on earth.
He said, “It was a fantastic experience, even though I was on the bench.
“I do think the Italians are not as good as they were but it was still a great achievement for us to beat them in what was our first World Cup.”
After the glamour of South Africa comes the graft of the training pitch and pre-season matches, but Pernis is not one to let hard work bother him.
He said, “After we went out of the World Cup, I went away back to Slovakia on holiday for two weeks and it was nice to visit all my family again.
“Now I am back working hard and I have only had a couple of training sessions but I am already tired!”
He added, “We still have a long time before the start of the season so I will be ready.
“The big thing for us is the Europa League and we are really determined to do well in that.”
Photo used under Creative Commons licence courtesy of twicepix.Ian Roache will be with United in Belfast. Read his report in The Courier on Monday.