Qualifying is no laughing matter

Trevor Stevens

Often it’s by virtue of their own doing, but Bafana Bafana regularly find themselves on the wrong end of jokes.

The national football team, currently ranked 80th in the world after some indifferent form of late, are often their own worst enemies.

Rewind to 2011 while trying to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations under Pitso Mosimane.

Pictures and videos of the Bafana team dancing after they thought a draw against Sierra Leone at the Mbombela Stadium was enough for qualification did the rounds worldwide. The champagne was opened prematurely after they failed to understand the rules, thinking a superior goal difference was the deciding factor only to find out head-to-heads gave Niger the edge over South Africa. But dance on they did.

In 2015 under Shakes Mashaba, Bafana once again shot themselves in the foot after being thumped by lowly Mauritania 3-1 away from home. The punchline this time? Not knowing they were going to play on an artificial pitch. You can’t make this stuff up. There are countless other embarrassing failures, but every now and then you have to cut them some slack.

Under Stuart Baxter they are in danger of missing out on qualification for next year’s World Cup. After shock back-to-back losses to Cape Verde in qualifiers, they have it all to do if they are to book their spot on a flight to Russia. After four matches they have four points. If they are to qualify they have to beat Senegal home and away next month. Senegal are ranked 47 places above them, and picking up points in Dakar is no easy task.

But there are teams ranked considerably higher than them that will miss out on Russia 2018. You won’t see Gareth Bale’s Wales in action. Nor will Chile’s Alexis Sanchez, the Netherlands’ Arjen Robben or Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang play at next year’s World Cup.

Four-time winners Italy face a tricky play-off round if they are to qualify. The United States also missed out on qualification – the first time since 1986.

To put it into perspective of how hard it is to qualify for a World Cup, one just has to look at Egypt. The North Africans this week qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1990. In the 27 years of missing out on World Cup action, they have won the Africa Cup of Nations four times and had a runners-up finish this year.

So keep the jokes on ice before we know Bafana’s fate.