Khumalo pick comes under fire
THE name of Bongani Khumalo, the Bafana Bafana central defender, keeps on creeping up.
As the debris slowly started to clear after the sacking of Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane earlier this week, Khumalo was used by some as an example of Mosimane’s alleged favouritism.
Critics claimed Khumalo hardly deserved selection, let alone a starting place in the national side given that he hardly plays for Tottenham Hotspur, his English Premiership club.
When Siyabonga Sangweni was injured in the lead-up to Bafana’s opening World Cup qualifier against Ethiopia, Mosimane turned to Khumalo to fill the void at centreback. However, the sight of the defender struggling to stop Ethiopia’s Ahmed Said from scoring was pinpointed as another Mosimane blunder.
Speaking before Saturday’s second qualifier against Botswana, Khumalo said he understood the argument of his critics, but warned he was playing in “the best league in the world” and thus could not be overlooked.
“The accusation that perhaps I shouldn’t be here is fair. But you need to look at other factors. I play in England and generally people don’t know what is happening on that side. The English Premiership is the stage where you play the highest level of football, probably the best league in the world.
“I’m playing for a top-four team and this was my first full season there. And the team has so many experienced players. So it was bound to be challenging but I told myself I would stick it out and face the challenge (of not getting regular game time).”
Critics have argued that when Sangweni, the Orlando Pirates defender, suffered an injury which forced him to withdraw from camp, Mosimane should have turned to Mulomuwandau Mathoho (two caps), of Bloemfontein Celtic instead of Khumalo, who played all the matches at the 2010 World Cup and has 26 caps.
It was unclear this week whether Mosimane’s interim replacement, Steve Komphela, would opt for Mathoho as cynics have suggested, in which case this would seem a populist decision.
There hasn’t been a clear indication as to how Komphela would approach Saturday’s game, and even Khumalo himself could not say yesterday if he would start. “It’s too early to tell who’s going to be in the starting 11, but from what I’ve seen I can’t say there has been a major shift in terms of ap- proach. We are still the same players and I really didn’t expect that there would be a sudden overhaul now that we are under a different coach. Football doesn’t change overnight. There’s a continuation and let’s see how things will pan out.”
By “continuation”, South Africans will hope Khumalo is not referring to Bafana’s winless streak, which stretched to seven games following Sunday’s 1-1 draw.
Khumalo conceded Bafana didn’t play to their best in that match, and were not helped by Ethiopia’s tactics. “At this level it’s proving harder and harder to win games. At least we got a point, which does count. We might look like we are not doing anything on the field but at times you must give credit to the opposition.”
Meanwhile, Siphiwe Tshabalala says Bafana paid the price for “underestimating” Ethiopia. “We failed as a team,” Tshabalala said. “It would be unfair to make excuses because we went through a two-week preparation for that game.
‘We analysed them, watched videos and were all eager to perform. But on matchday, the opposite happened… we underestimated the opponents and we actually got the shock of our lives to see how dedicated they were. We have to apologise to the nation and promise that such a poor performance will not happen again,” the Bafana vice-captain stated.