Night to forget for keeper as Zambia end unbeaten run
IT WAS just a friendly, but goalkeeper Ronwen Williams made yet another Bafana Bafana appearance he will want to forget.
The SuperSport United goalkeeper replaced Darren Keet at half-time with Bafana leading 1-0 and proceeded to concede twice at Moruleng Stadium last night.
He was beaten at the near post by Brian Mwila for the first and Lubinda Mundia capitalised from a defensive blunder to grab the lead in the 80th minute as Zambia emerged 2-1 winners.
Williams is no stranger to dreadful national team cameos. In March 2014, then Bafana coach Gordon Igesund handed young Williams his debut against Brazil, the fivetime world champions, who thrashed South Africa 5-0 at the FNB Stadium.
Last night’s result would have hurt his reputation at this stage.
This friendly turned out to be pretty decent for two sides showing signs of fatigue following contrasting fortunes in their opening 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers at the weekend.
South Africa made the trip to Uyo in Nigeria and shocked the Super Eagles with a 2-0 win in their own backyard, a sweet victory as it was the first time ever that they beat their continental counterparts in a qualifying match.
Zambia also suffered a surprise loss at home against Mozambique, who scored with virtually the last kick of the ball to win 1-0 in Ndola.
As expected, both side fielded fresh faces in Phokeng and the Zambians walked away the happier of the two teams.
They clawed their way back from a goal down to punish lacklustre defending and goalkeeping to end Bafana’s 18match unbeaten run – with 15 of those under Shakes Mashaba, who was sacked in December, and two under caretaker coach Owen da Gama.
Bafana could have edged it with a solitary goal from Lebogang Manyama in the 23rd minute, his first for the national team and confirmation that he is ready for the international stage.
But Mwila cancelled it out deep into the second half as he beat Williams. The ideal was to give every player Baxter had picked in his 25-man squad a chance to play. Victory would have been good for morale and future opportunities, while defeat calls for the coach to widen the pool of young and inexperienced players.
Bafana’s back four failed to stay focused in critical phases and were punished for it. Not a single player who started against Nigeria was on the pitch at kick-off, but Manyama, Percy Tau and Tiyani Mabunda, who came off the bench in Uyo, were picked in the first eleven.
Baxter looks ahead to the Cosafa Cup early next month where he has said he will use the bulk of the Under-20 national team that featured at the youth World Cup in South Korea last month, and bring in one or two veterans to guide them. – Soccer Reporter
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