Temperament cost SA in Rio

Temperament let South Africa down in the Olympic Games football tournament – but the talent is there.

This was the view expressed yesterday by Olympic Games and assistant Bafana Bafana coach Owen da Gama, who places a substantial slice of blame for the temperament flaw on the high expectations heaped on the players by over-optimistic officials.

“Look at it this way,” said Da Gama. “Going into the opening encounter against Brazil, the players realised they were in for the game of their lives and accordingly produced the right kind of tough, spirited temperament and discipline that earned them a creditable draw in spite of playing with 10 men for 30 minutes against the eventual gold medalists.

“In contrast, there was a blase, complacent attitude of misguided superiority before the defeat against Denmark and draw with Iraq,” added Da Gama, “with a consequent drop in performance and failure to reach the quarterfinals”.

Despite this, Da Gama believes the South African players emerged with considerable benefit from participating in the Olympic Games and will have a better appreciation of the professional attitude required on such occasions in the future.

Da Gama described as “naive” the criticism that emerged in certain quarters over South Africa including two of the three over-23 players that the Olympic Games rules permit for the occasion.

“All the top teams utilised this proviso to strengthen their lineups,” added South Africa’s coach, “and, in fact, we wanted to field a third over-23 player in Andile Jale, but his club initially refused to release him before relenting after the cut-off date.

“Had we secured the services of an experienced player like Jali it might just have tipped the scales in making it to the quarterfinals.”