maya
This week’s soccer buzz
● Some national team coaches literally live the life of their dreams — but no one gets it better than Stuart Baxter at Bafana Bafana.
Tsamaya was delighted to learn of Desiree Ellis’s appointment as Banyana Banyana head coach. It’s a long overdue and well-deserved appointment for Ellis, who’s had to work her socks off to be recognised.
While we were happy for Ellis, it was quite amusing to hear Safa president Danny Jordaan giving us that long list of mandates Ellis has to fulfil in order to keep her job. Among those is to qualify Banyana for Afcon this year, World Cup next year, Olympics in 2020 and a toptwo ranking on the continent.
The last time we checked Baxter had no mandate whatsoever from Safa, hence he’s still sitting pretty in his cushy job, months after failing dismally to qualify Bafana for the 2018 World Cup. If that’s not double standards, what is?
● You have to admit that things have really gone awry in our football when a 40-year-old with a pot belly threatens to cut some fat out of his system to come out of retirement due to the bluntness of those employed to do a job he once did with his eyes almost closed.
Former Bafana Bafana striker Benni McCarthy, who is now coach at Cape Town City, is keen to show his players how to bang them in after seeing his side muster an unconvincing 1-0 win over their less-fancied Swazi opponents, Young Buffaloes, in the African Confederation Cup on Tuesday.
“I honestly don’t know what to do anymore.
“If I must go for liposuction maybe and get myself to play.
“Maybe that will do the trick because the players will be a bit embarrassed by a 40-year-old taking their place and actually doing unbelievably well because I back myself," said a frustrated McCarthy.
● If there’s anything SA football is missing right now it must be the touchline antics of one Baroka FC coach Kgoloko Thobejane who was recently suspended by his club because of some flimsy allegation that he drank alcohol with a couple of his players while he was on the job.
The incident in which Thobejane is said to have been involved appears to be a smokescreen and just a tool being used by the club to get rid of one of the longest serving and most entertaining of coaches this country has ever produced.
The sooner Baroka drop their dubious case against Thobejane, the better for those of us who can’t go a week without getting a fresh dose of his post-match jokes.
● When Paulus Masehe started playing football professionally a smartphone was a shiny Nokia. There's a reason this man is called "Horse".
After 10 years of faithful service at Free State Stars, preceded by one-and-a-half at Orlando Pirates and four-and-a-half at Mamelodi Sundowns, Stars' faithful stallion reached 300 caps in last night’s Absa Premiership match between Stars and AmaZulu at Goble Park. And to imagine that some young players these days seem to think they’ve arrived after a year in the PSL. Tsamaya salutes the man who gave meaning to the term warhorse.