Another woeful weekend of sport
M Y PREVIOUS column was about Bafana Bafana’s world cup qualifying woes and less than a month later I am writing about another national team being on the receiving end of a hugely embarrassing result, one that I think will take a long time to recover from.
It wasn’t just any national team but the Springboks – our two-time World Cup-winning Springboks – who somehow managed to be on the receiving end of a 57-0 walloping by the All Blacks in Auckland.
I know it’s two weeks later, but I still need to remind myself that it’s not fake news. It really happened.
And, then to top it all off, this weekend, the Boks couldn’t get past the Wallabies. That match ended 27-27.
Allister Coetzee assures us he has taken positives from the game against the Aussies–who have now won the rugby championship for the fifth time in six years – particularly as the Boks are gearing up to face the All Blacks this Saturday in Cape Town. I have to say there is a collective nervousness in the air.
We’re all expecting another dominating performance by the world champions.
As I’m writing this, all I can think of is Pieter de Villiers – I don’t know why. Perhaps alarm bells should be ringing for Allister?
BAFANA Bafana will be in action this Saturday against Burkina Faso at FNB Stadium. In their previous encounter last October, the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
They go into this match desperately needing victory as they lie bottom of Group D with just one point, four adrift of Senegal and five behind Burkina Faso and Cape Verde.
WELL if that wasn’t a satisfying weekend of football, then I don’t know what was… well, I suppose it might not have been if you were on the other side of the supporter spectrum.
The Manchester teams are running away with it for now and could, in all likelihood, fight it out for the title come the end of the season.
Chelsea’s struggles this season have been rather interesting. Spurs have probably performed better than expected at Wembley, while Arsenal are occupying territory ( fifth) they’re starting to become accustomed to, and Liverpool for me have been the biggest disappointments thus far among the big clubs.
Everton have been diabolical – I think Ronald Koeman’s days are numbered. And even though he took the job willingly, I’m sure Roy Hodgson must be wondering why on Earth he chose to join Crystal Palace who are showing no signs of staying up this season.
Back to Liverpool, for years now I’ve thought that all Jurgen Klopp needed was time to build his squad, money to buy the players he needed and Liverpool would challenge for the top four and win the title.
Now I think they’re underachieving and Klopp needs to re-evaluate – they can and should be doing better.
BACK home, the reigning champions Bidvest Wits have had a poor start to the season, while Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates have had indifferent starts as well. Benni McCarthy’s Cape Town City is doing surprisingly well. The surprise of the weekend was Baroka FC beating Kaizer Chiefs to shoot to the top of the log on 15 points, two ahead of Golden Arrows, while Pirates are fourth on 12 points and Chiefs are sixth on nine points. The defending champions have just five points after seven games and sit in the drop zone in 15th spot. Gavin Hunt must be seething.