How to stop being the flops of Africa
Bareng-Batho Kortjaas asks what’s wrong with teams from southern Africa after some dreadful performances at Africa’s premier soccer showpiece? We must stop the God-help-us planning and be resolute in our actions, says Zambia’s Kalusha Bwalya
A BOUNTIFUL bag of bad tidings.
That is the correct way to capture the performance, or lack thereof, of the Southern African teams in Africa’s premier football spectacle — the Africa Cup of Nations.
At best, Southern Africa’s showings are a shambles. And that’s putting it mildly. Only two teams from the Council of Southern African Football (Cosafa) have won, or featured in the final, of the shindig founded in 1957.
South Africa’s Bafana Bafana — barely four years after readmission into the Confederation of African Football (Caf) fold — broke the Southern African duck when they scooped the continental championship on home soil in 1996.
Zambia’s Chipolopolo broke the region’s 16-year run of failures on African football’s biggest stage, but the 1974 team fell at the final hurdle against Mobuto Sese Seko’s Zaire.
In 1994 a Kalusha Bwalya-captained Chipolopolo crashed to the Super Eagles of Nigeria, skippered by the late Stephen Keshi.
A Jomo Sono-coached Bafana lost to Egypt in 1998. Bafana and Zambia, first-round casualties at the 2015 event, failed to qualify for the spectacle currently under way in Gabon. After a 10-year absence, Zimbabwe were the sole representatives.
Hoping that Zimbabwe’s Warriors were going to stage a coup of monumental proportions was an exercise in futility. They exited in the group stage sans a victory.
Which begs the question: why do Council of Southern African (Cosafa) teams tank so terribly at the top table of African football?
To their credit, Zimbabwe did lead highly rated Algeria 2-1 but went on to draw a game they should have won.
“What failed Zimbabwe was the lack of technical maturity to compete at that level. What failed them was the lack of soberness or emotional intelligence to be able to manage the result and manage the game,” said Rhulani Mokwena, a top technician who is the assistant coach at Mamelodi Sundowns.
“As a region we don’t have players who play consistently and can hold their own in the top five leagues: Spain, Germany, Italy, England and France.
“We don’t seem to have players that can consistently hold their own in that sort of environment.”
A close inspection of the squad profiles of the eight quarterfinalists (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia) allows one to establish that — with the exception of Egypt — their players compete at the top end of the football chain.
Cameroon were handicapped by eight top players, the most prominent being Joel Matip of Liverpool, who opted out of the Indomitable Lions team for the tournament.
“Even without those eight, they were able to put together a squad of players that play in the second tier of the European leagues and still cope well enough to maintain a level of performance.
“All the last eight teams have either been in the final or won it once or twice,” Mokwena said. A record seven times in the case of Egypt. Ghana and Cameroon are at four apiece.
“The north and west nations know what it takes to survive in an environment that is cut-throat and result-oriented.”
In tracing aspects that compromise players from our region, Mokwena names five main factors of performance: technical, tactical, mental, social and physiological.
Confronting the factors contributing to the Southern African conundrum, Mokwena opines: “The North and West African players, from a psychological point of view, have the edge of the southerners because the Afcon level of competition already assimilates a higher demand of mental resilience and the establishment of a winning mentality that comes playing at top club level.
“They are exported to the top leagues at a young age to stimulate further progress. If you check players who are dominating Afcon [they were] exported to Europe as young as 13 years old.”
A case in point is Cameroon goalkeeper Fabrice Endowa. He was taken to Barcelona at age 13. Sevilla bought him, and are second, a point behind La Liga leaders Real Madrid.
“Are we inquisitive enough to say can we challenge our youngsters to do the same?” asks Mokwena.
That psychological and mental fortitude was evident in Benni McCarthy. He left for Ajax Amsterdam in his teens and became the first South African to be the top goalscorer in the Portuguese league.
“When you profile them you are able to say, week in and week out, their players are competing at the highest level.”
Burkina Faso have Bertrand Traore, the Chelsea attacking midfielder.
Ghana have the Ayew brothers (Andre and Jonathan). Morocco have Medhi Amine El Mouttaqi Benatia, a Bayern Munich centreback on loan from Juventus.
“They are challenging for [European] Champions League every season with Juventus, Chelsea, Lazio — teams with a winning culture. [Seydou] Manne competes at Liverpool, that is higher level.”
Bwalya, who serves on the Caf technical committee, was president of the Zambia Football Association when they won in 2012. He says Southern African teams “must stop the God-help-us planning”.
“We must be resolute in our actions, take necessary measures and plan and play to win,” he said.
A team, argues Bwalya, the 1988 African footballer of the year, must be built from the ground up.
“Mostly in Africa we want to build the team from the tree.
“The base must come from the junior national teams. When we qualified for the under-20 African Youth Championship in 2007 we did well and went on to qualify for the under-20 World Cup in Canada.
“From that team you had eight or 10 players from that generation who made a big impact in us winning Afcon in 2012,” said Bwalya.
In conclusion, Mokwena declares that “we must uproot the current policies at development level and try to take the blueprint that the likes of Germany have explored”.
“It must be applied to the conditions conducive to and how it relates to the profile of our country.
“I am talking a holistic overhaul: coaching, administration, refereeing at grassroots level.
“We need a sober, sober perspective,” said Mokwena.