Bafana’s fall from grace
A disappointing game against Zambia sours the team’s surprising win over Nigeria
During the course of a week, new coach Stuart Baxter has managed to show the nation two Bafanas. One is a world beater, able to hand out a thrashing to the supremely talented Super Eagles in their own backyard. The other is a faltering chick, falling out of its nest and more likely to hit the ground with a thud than to take flight.
Bafana’s 2-1 loss to Zambia at the Moruleng Stadium near Rustenburg on June 13 took some of the gloss off the historic 2-0 victory over Nigeria at the Uyo stadium on June 10. There, Bafana defended bravely and struck decisively to assert their authority over their traditional rivals, offering a hint of their true potential in global football. The victory was an African Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying match and puts the national team on the front foot for the rest of the group games.
With a turnaround time of only three days between matches, Baxter used an almost entirely different team against Zambia for the friendly. Considering the age and level of experience of the Rustenburg Bafana team, it would be best to describe them as a future team. The soldiers who so bravely put their bodies on the line in Nigeria were given a break and the young guns were given a run.
In an impressive first half, Bafana not only controlled and dominated their opponents under slippery conditions in Moruleng on Tuesday, they also took a lead from Lebo Manyama. Yet, despite the verve and pace, the scoreboard failed to reflect this first-half dominance. Though the second half started much the same way, it was in the fourth stanza that Baxter’s young charges went awry. In short succession, the home team conceded two soft goals, which ended their 18-match unbeaten run.
This disappointed Baxter and he unsuccessfully tried to mask his feelings by claiming that they learnt a few valuable lessons on “how not to play”. Had they been a little sharper in front of goals, a draw would have been a fair outcome, he added.
“We showed in the second half that we cannot switch off,” Baxter complained in a post-match interview with the SABC. “We have to keep doing the right things and, when we don’t do that, instead of being a threat to the opposition, we’re a threat to ourselves.”
This is the malady that afflicted the national team in the past when they either failed to “kill off” a game or lost concentration at critical moments and ended up losing or drawing a match they had controlled and dominated.
“But I am pleased with the firsthalf performance and the last 15 minutes of the game,” Baxter said. “We sort of kicked back into life and created a few chances. On the run of play, we should have probably scored there and a draw would have ended as a fair result. But you miss chances like that and you always run the risk of losing the game.”
This inability to hold on to a lead was Bafana’s downfall when they crumbled under the weight of their home fans’ expectations during qualifiers for the 2015 Gabon Afcon tournament, during a campaign in which they could not overcome lightweight and moderate sides such as Mauritania and The Gambia.
But their away form cannot be questioned because of the manner in which they dismantled the Super Eagles. They had never beaten Nigeria in an official match in 13 attempts in 25 years. Last week’s win can only earn them respect throughout the continent, and possible qualification to a major tournament.
It was a solid start for Bafana Bafana under Baxter but there is a long way to go before the dream qualification to the 2018 World Cup in Russia can be achieved.
The new coach will be given some room to experiment as he embarks on his second term at the helm of the national team, but he should be mindful that, in the hearts of a football-mad nation, it’s only the win column that counts.