Wanted: A sizzling hot PSL campaign
| The World Cup may be over but fans can now look forward to local and English league action
DISMISS this hope as being hopeless like a penny with a hole in it all you want.
But now that the World Cup is gone, one hopes a piping hot 2014-15 PSL season is in the pipeline.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) players, bar Fatua Dauda, were spectators rather than participants in the quadrennial global soccer showcase.
Having feasted their eyes on the fantastic football fare on display — 64 matches — produced in productive performances by their professional peers, surely our players are inspired to strive to give us a sizzling hot season. No? Their coaches offered pearls of wisdom on platforms provided by both the SABC and SuperSport.
Surely the mentors noticed that the quality of product they deliver has some distance to travel before it can qualify to be
What is the purpose of the PSL? What is the purpose of the South African Football Association? Why do they continue to work in silos?
termed world class. They too will strive to coach better than before. No?
One hopes a PSL delegation that sauntered to Brazil went there not for the sights and sounds and all things samba.
The club bosses must have seen James Rodríguez telling the world: forget Carlos Valderrama, the Colombia No 10 is mine now. He only turned 23 last weekend.
The club bosses must have seen wet-behind-the-ears Julian Green scoring his first international goal for the US.
Arriving two minutes after his introduction in a World Cup match, the goal — his first touch of the match — made Green the US’s youngest World Cup scorer.
He doesn’t play for a Mickey Mouse Major League Soccer team. He’s on the books of Bayern Munich. He made his bow in the Champions League last year. Pep Guardiola has named him as part of the first team squad for the upcoming season. He only turned 19 in June. More greener pastures await Green.
Back in 2004, Mkhanyiseli Siwahla made a dream debut in the PSL.
Siwahla holds the record of the youngest scorer in the PSL — he was 15 when he scored for Ajax Cape Town against Dynamos.
Ten years later, 25 years old, his career is a catalogue of yo-yo-yoing in cameo stints between PSL National First Division (NFD) sides.
In this country we have a ridiculous rule that dictates that five under-23 players must be fielded in NFD teams.
They play in the first division while 23-year-old Rodríguez sets the world football scene alight as the top goalscorer at the World Cup with six goals.
The 2014 World Cup should force us to ask hard questions and have a brutally honest conversation with ourselves.
What is the purpose of the PSL? What is the purpose of the South African Football Association?
What is the reason for them to continue working in silos?
What purpose does the SafaPSL joint liaison committee serve when it cannot come up with a cohesive, coherent coming together of the minds of the football fathers for the greater good of the game in the country?
Do our players even know why they play football?
Is it to pose for pictures half naked, eating sushi, and post them on Instagram?
Is it to celebrate in a naked dressing-room selfie after winning a trophy? Is it to tweet that they are humbled to be compared to a goalkeeper who is playing at the World Cup while they are twiddling their thumbs on Twitter?
What do the players have in store for us this season? Same old, or better than before? Bye bye Brazil. Roll on PSL 2014-15.