It’s do or die for Bafana coach Baxter
The nation’s patience is wearing thin and, with Afcon prospects beckoning, expectations are high
Come next week, Stuart Baxter may well be looking at his future prospects with the national side with a good degree of scepticism. He can avoid that with a win against Libya on Saturday, of course, but anything else will signal the wolves. And they’re particularly hungry of late.
They have hounded the Bafana coach and accused him of nepotism after the Scot called up his son, Lee Baxter, to replace the unavailable Andre Arendse as goalkeeper coach. The velocity at which this criticism has spread was not sparked by this incident alone; frustration has been burning in our collective memories ever since the team so spectacularly threw away any World Cup prospects against Cape Verde.
As we wander through the doldrums of Bafana failure, we are prone to lose sight of the fact that we actually want to win. Surely something is amiss when the man tasked with driving us to our desired destination has to spend so much time at the training camp in KwaMashu explaining away a backroom staff appointment.
For Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana legend Doctor Khumalo, at least, it’s time to change the attitude with which we approach these games.
“This is not about Stuart, this is the national team. There is a national duty,” he argues. “The supporters, even myself as an individual, I am obliged to be positive and give positive support to the nation in order for us to get the results. If we don’t then there will be negativity and all that will be thrown out of the window.”
After so many eventful months, it’s easy to forget just what a fantastic position Bafana holds in Group E for qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon). Beating favourites Nigeria away from home was massive and places Bafana only a few wins away from qualifying. With two games against Libya and the Seychelles still to come, in theory that trip to Cameroon next year should be locked up.
It’s that same ostensible assurance that will pile on the pressure should the points fail to materialise. It’s hard to imagine the public, and by extension the South African Football