Stop showing off!

South African football is based on, among other things, skill and flair – which are two important ingredients to any individual brilliance. These are just some of the attributes that set us apart from everyone else in the world, including Brazilians who are the closest footballing nation to what we are all about. That’s a big statement, but is there anyone who can argue against it? Certainly not!

There’s always been a long-standing argument about the excessive use of our skill, which leads to showboating, while others prefer to see skill all the time. Interestingly, the very same skill that makes us unique and is our strongest weapon has become our weakness over the years! Back in the day, the likes of the late Ace Ntsoelengoe, Jomo Sono, Teenage Dladla, Professor Ngubane, Tebogo Moloi, Doctor Khumalo and many others in their different generations fully understood and embraced the importance of skill in their game. They also acknowledged the responsibility on their shoulders to make sure that they didn’t only stand out but made their teammates better players by either creating goal-scoring chances for their strikers, through their skill, to boost their confidence or create space for their defenders to play in. Their skill was more about the team than them individually and therefore they never used their skill to the detriment of the team. They always used it to impose themselves on the opponents, which ultimately made the opponent think twice before committing to any tackle. Already, that’s taking away from the opponent’s defensive ability because they have to ‘dance’ to the skillful player’s ‘tune’. That means they will have to wait and see what the skillful player does before they can even attempt to react. No one wants to be in that situation.

There’s a very fine line between a skillful and showboating footballer. A skillful player knows when, how and why they have to use their skill. That’s why they become unpredictable and successful, as their skill works to the benefit of the team. When you least expect them to use their skill or individual brilliance, they skin you alive, but when they have all the time and space, with everyone expecting to see skill and flair – as it is convenient to do so – they keep it simple, play oneor two-touch and release the ball. The opponent, expecting to see flames, gets thrown off because none of what they expected happened. It is when you expect a skillful player to play one- or two-touch that they seize the opportunity to dribble, play a cross or release a defence-splitting pass. These people know when and how to keep it simple, unlike the ‘showboaters’ whose first reaction to a pass is the use of skill, regardless of what is happening or where they are on the field. There’s a third man running behind the opposition defence, the ‘showboater’ doesn’t see or care about that run because the main thing is to show people what they are made of. By the time they release the ball, the teammate is offside. That’s what showboating is all about: self-sabotage and holding the whole team back.

You simply can’t play football like that! To the young, up-and-coming footballers, especially in the townships where the obsession of skill is at the highest, this is the basic difference between the two kinds of players. If you are talented and skillful, you can only go far in professional football by understanding the difference between the two. If you’re a crowd pleaser who doesn’t work for the team, your football will only take you as far as Easter and December holidays township tournaments. There’s simply no space for showboating in the modern game, although there’s plenty room for skillful players. If most of our players understood the difference between skill and showboating, a lot of them would become world stars today because South Africans are blessed with skill. The modern game is about intelligence, speed of thought and movement, timing, effective possession, the balance between defending and attacking and, more importantly, discipline, among many aspects. It doesn’t help you to keep possession in areas where you don’t hurt the opposition. In fact, smart teams will allow you all the possession in your own half, press you high when they want to, dispossess you and, before you know it, you’re on the back foot.

As coaches, especially amateur and development level, this is my message and plea to you. Please put more emphasis on the fine line between skill and showboating to your players. Most young players don’t know the difference between skillful and showboating players. If you get the balance right, no one will stand in your way. There are a number of skillful players in our elite league, and they know when, why and how to maximize their skill. If it wasn’t for Doctor Khumalo’s ability to balance, skillful as he was, between attack and defence, the late Philemon Masinga wouldn’t have scored the solitary goal that took us to the France ’98 FIFA World Cup. Thanks to his defensive qualities, Doc was able to read and intercept a pass that was meant to play out of defence and, instead of taking on the defenders in front of him with his skills, he simply played a defence-splitting pass that set the big Phil through, and the rest is history. If Doc was about showboating, nothing would have stopped him from taking a couple of touches on the ball before trying to pass to Phil, if he wasn’t dispossessed. Skillful players are about making defining moments, gamechanging moments, where individual brilliance turns the game on its head.

Football, like any other sport, is all about taking advantage of the opposition’s mistakes. If you are going to be dribbling without a purpose, you are holding your team back and playing into the opposition’s hand, while you think you’re keeping the supporters entertained. Before you know it, football will spit you completely out of the system because there’s no place for players like you in the modern game. South African football isn’t about showboating but purposeful use of skill to move from one point to the next, for the benefit of the team. You use your skill to create space and scoring chances, not to mock the opposition players or playing to the gallery, which is unfortunately what seems to be the general understanding of skillful players at amateur level. Because of that mentality, a lot of our young and promising players don’t make it far in the game because they just don’t seem to grasp the difference between skillful and showboating players. Amateur and development coaches, please, drill this into your payers’ minds from an early age so that we can groom better players. The fact that South Africa doesn’t even have a regular player in the top five leagues in the world isn’t by fluke. We need to get our act together from grassroots level. Is anyone from South African Football Association listening? We need proper coaching courses for our amateur coaches so that they instill proper basics to our players.

Cheers. VeeJay