Bafana do not rate too highly in return
SOUTH Africa completed their 2018 Fifa World Cup qualification campaign with another defeat against Senegal in Dakar on Tuesday night in what was their last international match of the year.
TimesLIVE provides player ratings from a fourth loss from six games in what has proved a dismal qualification campaign for the side that had started with such promise. ITUMELENG KHUNE – 6 Khune had a mixed bag on the night. He was caught out of position for the opening Senegal goal as he rushed off his line‚ but could do nothing about the second. It was his pinpoint distribution that put Themba Zwane away to set up Percy Tau for the equaliser. THAMSANQA MKHIZE – 6 Did not get forward as much as in his previous two appearances, but that is perhaps understandable given the nature of the game. MORGAN GOULD – 5 Had looked fairly solid through the 90 minutes until he rather meekly attempted to head clear at the death‚ only to be beaten to the ball by Kara Mbodji. CLAYTON DANIELS – 6 Had to be strong against the big Senegalese forwards and he mostly kept them at bay. Might have reacted quicker to the danger for Opa N’Guette’s opener. SIFISO HANTI – 6 Flashed one free-kick wide and looked a willing runner in the fullback position. DEAN FURMAN – 6 Was busy as always but didn’t quite stamp his authority on the middle of the park. Received a booking midway through the second half for a sloppy foul. BONGANI ZUNGU – 7 Neat and tidy in possession‚ he used the ball well and covered a lot of ground to try win possession for South Africa. THEMBA ZWANE – 6 Won the penalty and then missed from 12 yards as he put the ball wide. But he did set up the goal for Tau as he collected Khune’s pass and worked his Mamelodi Sundowns teammate into space. KEAGAN DOLLY – 5 Did not really do enough in the playmaker position. SIBUSISO VILAKAZI – 6 Had a few good moments with some link-up play‚ but battled at times to find his passing range on the difficult pitch. PERCY TAU – 7 Full of running once again and always a willing outlet upfront‚ he was out-muscled at times but kept on harassing the Senegal backline and was rewarded with his goal. SUBSTITUTES ANDILE JALI – 6 A surprise perhaps he did not start‚ Jali played the final 20 minutes and did okay as he tried to lift the tempo of the visitors’ play. LEBOGANG MANYAMA – n/a He had only six minutes at the end of the game. — SENEGAL’S coach Aliou Cisse had a veiled dig at his detractors after success in the last World Cup qualifier against South Africa‚ saying he had forgiven those who have “criticised” or “derided” his work during the preliminaries.
Senegal confirmed their place at next year’s finals in Russia with a last-gasp 2-1 win over Bafana Bafana in Dakar on Tuesday
“You know life is like that‚ especially in football‚ but as we say at home‚ ‘I forgive everyone’ and I apologise to all those I had to offend‚” he told a post-match press conference.
The former Paris St Germain defender helped ensure his country a total of 14 points and an unbeaten run through their six Group D matches where they beat both the Cape Verde Islands and South Africa home and away and drew both matches against Burkina Faso.