Just keep winning your home games
Idon’t think we should read too much into Bafana Bafana’s defeat by Ghana in their first 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at Cape Coast Stadium last Thursday. Ghana away is the most difficult game in the group, and two teams will go through to the finals in Cameroon, so we need to look at the endgame here and not focus on one match.
We will have another game against them at home later in the campaign. I also don’t think we should make a big deal of Molefi Ntseki’s team not having any shots at goal against Ghana. The plan was obviously to contain the Black Stars and then catch them on the break. If you are cautious in your first game it is understandable.
What is important is winning your home games, which brings us to Sunday’s 1-0 win over Sudan at Orlando Stadium. The three points are what matters, nothing else. I played with Lebo Phiri for a bit at Wits, when he was a junior, and when Roger De Sa wanted to promote him to the senior team. The boy is exceptional in defensive midfield, and the fact that he played a more advanced role against Sudan shows that he is able to adapt tactically. That is the fruits, for me, of a player going to Europe early. We saw Thulani Serero go to Ajax Amsterdam as an attacking midfielder and there he was converted to a more defensive midfielder, where he also played at Vitesse Arnhem, but here with Bafana again he was able to switch to a more attacking role against Sudan. No disrespect to the locally-based players, but this is the advantage of a player going abroad.
It is good to see Phiri starting to make his way into the national team after missing out on the squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. I am glad Ntseki is giving him a chance. It is important to see Ntseki putting his own mark on his team, we are no longer in the Stuart Baxter era, we are now in the Molefi Ntseki era. We created a lot of chances against Sudan that we didn’t convert but the fact that we are creating, we can be happy. It shows we are attacking and getting into the right areas. We know that since Benni McCarthy we haven’t really had a prolific striker, someone needs to show up, whoever is selected needs to convert the opportunities created.
Three points from two games in Group C is a good start, if you win your home games and get your nine points and then maybe pick up four on the road it puts you in a nice position.
In terms of Ntseki talking about trying to call up the Preston striker Thomas Barkhuizen, I think it is important to cast the net wide. If a player has South African roots and the quality to make a difference in the national team, by all means pull them in, but you mustn’t be favoured just because you play in Europe. Your quality must speak to what the coach wants.
Moving to the national Under-23 players, it is amazing what David Notoane has done, because a lot of the players he wanted were not released by their clubs. I think teams not releasing their players to play for the Under-23s needs to be checked. I played for the Under-23s in my time and I know what it was like when players were not released. The priority should be serving your national team, and if a youngster has an opportunity to gain experience in a high profile tournament, it is selfish of clubs not to let them go.