Big week ahead for Bafana
Too often these days, the week leading up to an international match involving Bafana Bafana is actually more fun than the on-day event. Hope, that old beast, is thick in the air, the chance the national team might just live up to – nay – even exceed expectations.
This tends to build into a fever of excitement on the eve of the match, only for the balloon to explode dramatically on match day with a limp display, followed by a spate of poor excuses.
Bafana Bafana head coach Stuart Baxter had plenty of those on his return from the Seychelles, where South Africa more than slightly embarrassed themselves with a goalless draw against the unfancied islanders that set them back a little in 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying.
Only a few days earlier, to be fair, Bafana had actually performed, albeit against a team of amateurs, as they beat the Seychelles 6-0 at FNB Stadium. The problem is that this, in recent years, has proved an exception rather than a norm, through a host of beleaguered head coaches, who almost always seem to be visibly aged by the job.
Bafana play Nigeria on Saturday in their penultimate qualifier for Cameroon 2019, an old enemy who have tended to get the better of South Africa over the years.
If Baxter can take plenty of hope heading into this game, however, it is that Nigeria have certainly not got the better of him in two different spells with Bafana. In November 2004, Baxter became the first Bafana coach ever to beat Nigeria, as Bafana beat a depleted Super Eagles 2-1 in the Nelson Mandela Challenge.
Even more impressively, in June 2017, Baxter masterminded Bafana’s first victory over Nigeria in a competitive match, South Africa completing a 2-0 win on the road in their opening 2019 Afcon qualifier.
The South African Football Association’s decision to re-appoint Baxter looked inspired in that moment, but it has been pretty much downhill ever since, with homeand-away defeats to Cape Verde in 2018 Fifa World Cup qualfiying particularly embarrassing, and a home goalless draw with Libya in Durban not much better.
Nigeria, meanwhile, have taken advantage of Bafana’s stumbles against Libya and the Seychelles to move to the top of Group E, and will no doubt be determined to get revenge over Baxter’s men for what happened in Uyo. It has, indeed, been nearly five years since Nigeria last beat Bafana, with the sides playing two draws in Shakes Mashaba’s successful attempt to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations ahead of the Super Eagles.
This time, both teams should really make it to an expanded Cameroon 2019, with the top two places in Group E guaranteeing qualification. Even if Bafana were to lose to Nigeria on Saturday, they would still qualify with a draw in Lib- ya in March. But one feels Bafana need at least a point this weekend to restore some pride after a torrid time. On their day, South Africa can certainly raise their game, and they will have to once more, to match a Nigeria side full of stars.
Baxter has, in his defence, had bad luck with injuries too, with almost his entire first-choice midfield currently out of action. But the Bafana coach does have his choice of playing at altitude, which worked for Bafana in their last competitive win at home to an African power, the 3-1 victory over Burkina Faso at the FNB Stadium in World Cup qualifying last year. There should certainly be no excuses about playing conditions (as there were on the return from the Seychelles), should Bafana fail to get a result here.