Bring us some Bafana sunshine

FANCY passing in a football match is all well and good – but it doesn’t help if you can’t get the ball in the back of the net.

That was the age-old painful lesson Bafana Bafana had to learn all over again when they went down 1-0 to Ivory Coast in their African Nations Cup campaign opener on Monday.

The Bafana players had plenty of possession and there was a lot of passing backwards and forwards between the players.

But that pales into insignificance with the most glaring statistic from the game: in 90 minutes of soccer, Bafana did not manage a single shot on target. And it’s not as if the Ivory Coast looked unbeatable.

No wonder Bafana playmaker Percy Tau cut a frustrated figure when he spoke to the media after the match.

“We couldn’t get into the game. I couldn’t get into the match. But if we attacked properly, it was going to be a different story. As good as they are, if we did better in our attack, the scoreline would have been much different,” Tau said.

So Bafana have immediately been placed on the back foot as they are in a tough group, with the slick and dangerous Morocco waiting for them next week.

It is absolutely vital that they beat Namibia tonight to at least give themselves a fighting chance of reaching the play-offs.

Normally, you would expect Bafana to have the measure of their neighbours, but then again, this is Bafana, where anything and everything is possible.

Namibia coach Ricardo Mannetti has made it clear all week how excited his team are to play Bafana. The fact that it is a “derby” will add some extra spice and will motivate the Namibians to try and record a famous win over their “bigger brothers”.

The South Africans need to respond with a powerful statement of their own, attack with purpose, create goal-scoring opportunities and finish off those opportunities.

With the Proteas and Banyana having been eliminated from their respective World Cups, these are cloudy times for South African sports fans. A Bafana victory will bring some sunshine in again.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

US philosopher