The streets of Rustenburg are abuzz with the words "Fernando Torres" as the platinum province of the North West gets ready to welcome the number one team in the world, European champions Spain.

Spain kick off their FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 campaign against New Zealand at Rustenburg's Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on 14 June, to the delight of the local community.

"It's great to have the European champions in Rustenburg and the locals are very excited. Everyone's talking about Fernando Torres and about how great it will be to have him in Rustenburg. People are starting to realise that the FIFA Confederations Cup is really happening and the momentum is starting to build. We've been fielding plenty of requests about tickets for the Confederations Cup and have been explaining the process, so there's plenty of interest and the vibe in the city is good," said Rustenburg 2010 Host City coordinator Nketu Matima.

And the upgrade to the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace - which is in the heart of South Africa's platinum belt and was built by the local Bafokeng tribe - is virtually complete in preparation for the tournament.

"The upgrades to the west stand are now well over 90 per cent complete and the roof is on. It is just the partitioning of the roof that is underway at the moment and this will be finished soon. By February 95 per cent of the work will be complete. All that will be left to do after that will be minor external work, including the final cleaning of the stadium and its surrounds, which puts us well on track to hand over the stadium by the end of February," said Matima.

The internal upgrades, which include the dressing rooms and medical facilities, are complete and new seats are being installed. The new lights and video screens have been installed and the pitch has also been redone.

For Matima, however, one of the most important aspects of the stadium upgrade has been improving the transport situation around the stadium precinct and improving accessibility to and from the venue.

"In terms of the precinct upgrade, a new western bypass link road is being built to the stadium. This will be finished by April and people are now beginning to understand what we meant when we spoke about the proposed transport improvements which will benefit the entire city," said Matima.

While the Spaniards will be the star attractions, the North West province has also benefitted from the 2010 FIFA World Cup Schools Programme's ‘Adopt a Nation', which sees pupils in all provinces ‘adopt' participating FIFA Confederations Cup countries. North West has adopted the United States of America, who will play against Egypt in Rustenburg on 21 June, with pupils already learning about the US' culture, football and history. US embassy officials have also visited a number of schools in the province to explore possible social responsibility programmes.

And in Rustenburg, everyone's stepping up to the plate, with thousands of volunteers - from 18 to 62 years of old - applying to play their part in making the FIFA Confederations Cup a success in their city and province.