The most terrible thing to witness

On what went wrong – Bafana has never been the same!

In this week’s column, I’ve decided to deviate a little bit from the regular format because there is something I would really like to address sooner than later. I want to look at the importance of participating in continental football or the importance of having a good team or squad to represent our country in the Afcon or at the World Cup. Firstly, let’s outline certain important conditions or important points in terms of what does it take to be in the national team or to coach the national team? You are being selected based on your performances, form and capabilities, according to the coach’s opinion or views. The coach is the only one who will be able to select those he thinks would fit his philosophy. Now, if we were to dissect it from the beginning, where are we coming from? We come from an isolation, we come from a disabled country that was not allowed or supposed to be playing against any nation because of the apartheid regime. Fast-forward to 1992 and we were given an opportunity to test our strength against any country in the world.

When all this started, we didn’t understand, or we didn’t have an experience on how to assemble a national team or how could we be like the other national teams and operate accordingly. We crumbled in our first few international games. Yes, we might have won our first international game against Cameroon and also, based on the kind of players that were selected, the kind of performances that they gave and all the hard work behind the scenes, looked promising for the future. Sitting here now, I think it was more of players that were doing well in their respective teams that were called up. Also how the then coach, Screamer Tshabalala, assembled a team that was so balanced between ‘Shoeshine and Piano’ and tough soldiers that would go to war, was very important and played a significant role in how our team performed.

Fast-forward to 1996, the very same principles applied because, if you look at that squad, it was similar to the very first Bafana team and that squad went on to win the Afcon and qualify us for the FIFA World Cup for the first time ever, in 1998. Within six months, we had two different national teams and national team coaches in 1998. One coached for the Afcon and the other one coached for the World Cup in France. If we were to look at the journey since then, up to now, our Bafana Bafana has never been the same! The chain was broken and how we performed since then has been a reflection of how things were handled. The way we’ve been introducing new players into the national team has been the catalyst of our problems. 80% of the players that were experienced and played between ’96 and ’98 saw their team being dismantled, drastically! When coach Philipe Troussier took over, he brought back some faces from that team and took them to the World Cup. However, most of them were not utilised at the tournament. Then the biggest of them all, which was something we never took into consideration, was allowing the late coach Clive Barker to resign from his coaching job. I’m mentioning all these things because they were happening when we didn’t have time to waste and should rather have been focusing on propelling our team to greatness. We lacked continuity that would see consistency and lead us in the right direction to take our national team to the next level.

On current Bafana – They healed our wounds

Yes, we reached the final of the ’98 Afcon, but what happened at the World Cup? We were knocked out in the group stage despite standing a good chance to qualify for the Last 16. Had we maintained a proper structure in our team both on and off the field, I believe we would have gone far in that tournament. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering why am I talking about this? I just want to remind people of the missed opportunities and why we are dealing with the challenges we are faced with today. For almost three decades now, we have not played an Afcon final and our people have been deprived of a smile on their faces from our national football team. The squad that played in Ivory Coast really healed our wounds and souls because they reached the semifinals and won the third place playoff, to bring home a bronze medal. They brought back a lot of memories of what our national team used to be and they had a lot of similarities with some of our previous and successful teams. You look at coach Hugo Broos’ journey, he didn’t start as well as he would have liked. There was a bit of hiccups here and there, until he realised the right way to go about his business. Now we are starting to believe again in our national team and the pride is getting restored. South Africans are back to support their team and it was really sad to see people not interested in our Bafana and watching them play in front of empty stadiums, while other countries played in front of capacity-crowd venues. I mean, we couldn’t even get 10 000 supporters for some of our games and that was the most terrible thing to witness, knowing what representing the country means and does to a player. I’m looking at the journey from 1992 to now and asking myself if there was anything we could have done better in terms of continuity and ensuring an upward trajectory in our Bafana? It looks like we did things randomly, unplanned and took things as they came rather than making things happen. I’m trying to find reasons why we have had to suffer for so many years on the national team football front.

Seeing our team not getting the results and deteriorating, sometimes not even able to qualify for Afcon, was really saddening. From being the champions to failing to qualify, from being in the Top 16 in the world to find ourselves languishing in the late 60s in the rankings was really nothing to be proud of. That was all because we failed to do things the right way. The decline in the support and not getting the results we needed is all down to poor or lack of planning. We just didn’t do things properly. That’s why, to this day, we are still raving about the Class of ’96 as the best team we’ve had since readmission into international football. The current crop came close to making history, as they just needed to beat Nigeria and possibly win the final to be the second team to ever do so.

On Clive Barker – Why would Clive say that to me?

Is it safe for me to say, if we don’t learn from our mistakes we are going to continue experiencing the drought in terms of success at national team level? I believe there is nothing wrong with anyone who believes we have not learned from our previous mistakes. Better planning and having a vision is what we need, as a matter of urgency. I don’t want to dwell much on negativity and what happened in those years because there is so much one can talk about. There is a lot that South Africans don’t know or understand that happened behind the scenes. I still maintain that “The Dog” was the best coach we’ve ever had in our national team. His resignation was not well-explained to the public or even the players, because there were individuals who were patiently waiting for his downfall so that they could take over. Before coach Clive closed his eyes for the last time – thank God I had a chance to sit with and listen to him – we discussed a lot of things. He told me that the negativity from certain parties was so unbearable up until he was ‘forced’ to resign. Why would a coach say to you, “Please tell the boys that I’m so sorry about the decision I made. I let you guys down”? Those two sentences are so loaded and there is so much that can come out of them. Why would Clive say that to me? Why should I go and tell the Class of ’96, who did so well for the country, that the coach said he is sorry that he let us down and that he shouldn’t have resigned? It is for the first time that I am saying what Clive told me before he passed on, after my visit to him at his house. I still have those video clips of our conversation on my phone and I play them every day. There is so much he said, but I would like to respect him and make sure that he continues to rest in peace, without me causing a lot of havoc while we are still celebrating our national team who did us proud in Cote d’Ivoire. What that man told me, I’m just looking at those perpetrators, the people he mentioned that ‘forced’ him to resign. I’m saying this with a bleeding heart and my eyes are full of tears because I couldn’t believe that our own would do that to one of their own. Unfortunately, the country suffered because of that. There is so much that this man told me, but I would rather reserve most of it for some other day. But when he asked me to apologise to the team on his behalf, Clive knew that his days were numbered and I’m not sure if there is anyone else, out there, whom he told what he told me before his passing. I was fortunate to see him in his last few days and I will always hold that memory dear to my heart.

On Hugo Broos – He now understands our football

The reason I am talking about the national team is to highlight the good things that happened and the bad side of things. Like I said, coach Broos didn’t have a good start because he didn’t understand how to manoeuvre certain avenues, but he was smart enough to say, “Only a fool doesn’t change his mind” after realising his mistakes. Look at how much improvement he has brought to our national team since then. He now understands our football better and it shows in some of the decisions he has made. It wasn’t a fluke that his team finished third at the recent Afcon because they were one of the most impressive sides in terms of organisation and structure. Despite the challenges they faced during their preparations, they still went out there and delivered a huge surprise to the continent. He put together a quality team that went out there to represent their country with pride and put a smile on our faces. We might argue the fact that Mamelodi Sundowns might have played a big role with the 10 players that were selected from their team, as well as their continental football experience, but the coach still had a lot of work to do in getting the team to gel. You must remember that the national team comprises of players from different clubs. When we reached the quarterfinals, the Sundowns dominance started dwindling because the coach started introducing players like Jayden Adams, Thabang Monare, Oswin Appollis, Mihlali Mayambela, Nkosinathi Sibisi and Zakhele Lepasa. That goes to show the depth and quality of our national team. It might have gone unnoticed by some people, but I noticed that the coach clearly did a great job in assembling his squad because, even when injuries came into effect, when we lost Thapelo Maseko, we still had cover. I hear people saying we were helped by Sundowns players mostly, but football is a game of opinions. Having said that, I wouldn’t like for us to downplay other players’ contribution because it was all a team effort. The combinational play that left the Nigeria head coach gobsmacked was mostly through team effort. The South African flair shone throughout that game and was enhanced by individual brilliance whenever necessary. There was so much of a social factor, which is why the players understood one another so well. It wasn’t an easy tournament because of the heat and the pressure of being an underdog, with almost everyone not giving you a chance, having to deal with top-ranked opponents and all that. So, we have to be proud of our team for finishing third.

On way forward – History will repeat itself

We can’t afford to go through what we went through with the previous national teams. One really hopes there is already a plan for the sake of continuity, even though there is reported interest in our coach from other countries. We really need to keep him and this team so that they can elevate our national team. That’s how we can ensure progression rather than seeing our team going backwards, as it was the case in the past. We need to get to a stage where, for argument’s sake, if the coach leaves, then we have Helman Mkhalele taking over so that we don’t lose the identity of the team. That’s how I believe we can sustain our national team. If we don’t have a plan for the next 10 years, unfortunately history will repeat itself. We must have a plan and support it with everything we have because the World Cup qualifiers are around the corner and so are the next Afcon qualifiers. We can’t afford to continue chopping and changing coaches and players without any plan in place.