Wanted: match-fit and injury-free goalie for Bafana

ANOTHER injury to Itumeleng Khune on the eve of a tricky assignment and the Bafana Bafana goalkeeping department has the unsteady look of a cat that has just emerged from a tumble dryer.

Bafana always seem to have this unreliable look about them in Khune’s absence and news that the SA No 1 will miss Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Angola was responsible for numerous rapid heartbeats and sudden spikes in blood pressure across the land.

Now you have to bear in mind that the national team’s roller-coaster performances over the past few months and the ill-advised retaliatory barbs Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba decided in his infinite wisdom to direct at his critics have cast him in the role of villain of this Bafana movie.

The coach is the Darth Vader of these parts and any decision he took as reaction to Khune’s withdrawal was always going to be met with hard, disapproving scrutiny.

Mashaba turned to Khune’s Kaizer Chiefs teammate Brilliant Khuzwayo in his search for a replacement, but even this decision didn’t sit very well with some.

The problem is Khuzwayo had hardly kicked a ball before Chiefs’ Telkom Knockout semifinal triumph over Orlando Pirates on Saturday and one performance was all that was needed for him to moonwalk his way into the national team. The reaction was swift and brutal, with many questioning how a goalkeeper who has hardly played all season could be selected ahead of more deserving candidates such as Wits’ Moeneeb Josephs.

But in keeping with the comedy of the past few days, Khuzwayo turned down the Bafana call-up, citing family commitments as a reason.

The Search for a Goalkeeper Show took to the road again and Josephs still did not crack the nod. Mashaba settled on Wayne Sandilands and that selection had its own critics as again, Josephs edges the Sundowns man if actual game time is to be used as a prerequisite for selection.

And so, Bafana go to a World Cup qualifier with question marks over who will be in goal on Friday.

Will it be Sandilands, Jackson Mabokgwane or Ronwen Williams? Truth be told, none of them inspire much confidence.

Williams has picked up the ball from the back net more times than he cares to remember this season and, pertinently, hasn’t looked anything like the ice-cool model of composure of old.

In his defence, Mashaba can argue Sandilands kept goal for Bafana when they played Angola in the African Nations Championship qualifiers last month and he was the best bet at short notice.

But all this uncertainty does very little to settle the nerves ahead of a match that could end Bafana’s chances of getting to Russia in 2018.

We have been here before and that uneasy feeling of déjà vu is not misplaced. Lest we forget, the goal-keeping department also had challenges in the beginning of the year after an injury to Khune.

Mashaba travelled to the Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea without the injured goalkeeper and then infamously rotated the No 1 shirt between Darren Keet, Mabokgwane and Khuzwayo.

The results were disastrous and Bafana stayed long enough to familiarise themselves with their hotel lobby before they returned home with their tails between their legs.

Angola have proved they are no slouches and we need look no further than their triumph in a four-nations tournament at the weekend.

They were using that event as part of their preparations for Bafana and while we were scrambling for goalkeepers, they were beating Democratic Republic of Congo 1-0 in the final. There goes that familiar feeling of déjà vu again …