PARKER ’ S HOT STREAK UP THERE WITH THE BEST
Striker bags 10 goals in 12 games Why one goal meant so much to coach Gorowa
BERNARD Parker’s current run of 10 goals in his past 12 international matches for Bafana Bafana is the joint second best purple patch in the history of the national team.
In the 12 matches since the 3-0 victory away against Central African Republic in June last year, Parker has been SA’s most prolific current scorer and equal second best ever with Katlego Mphela. And that is not counting his superb own goal against Ethiopia.
Benni McCarthy eclipsed the duo when he scored 11 goals in 12 games – a run that started with his historic four-goal haul in 13 minutes against Namibia at the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations finals.
The run ended with a brace against Egypt in December of that year, meaning at the time McCarthy had 11 goals in his first 18 internationals in all, a ratio he would not sustain, eventually taking 80 matches to net 31 internationals goals.
Kaizer Chiefs forward Parker now has 23 goals in 67 internationals, the same number as Mphela and just eight short of leading scorer McCarthy.
Four of his recent strikes have come from the penalty spot, including three of his last four, but that should detract from the achievement. Mphela also managed 10 in 12 games between May 2010 and June 2011, though a number of the World Cup warm-up matches are under investigation for match-fixing, with Mphela profiting from three dubious penalties. PARKER S SCORING RUN 08-06-13 vs Central African Republic 3-0
one goal 16-06-13 vs Ethiopia 1-2 one goal 14-08-13 vs Nigeria 0-2 no goals 17-08-13 vs Burkina Faso 2-0 no goals 07-09-13 vs Botswana 4-1 two goals (one penalty) 10-09-13 vs Zimbabwe 1-2 one goal 11-10-13 vs Morocco 1-1 no goals 15-11-13 vs Swaziland 3-0 no goals 19-11-13 vs Spain 1-0 one goal 11-01-14 vs Mozambique 3-1 two goals (one penalty) 15-01-14 vs Mali 1-1 one goal (penalty) 19-01-14 vs Nigeria 1-3 one goal (penalty) ZIMBABWE coach Ian Gorowa admitted he felt more relief than excitement when his team finally got a goal at the African Nations Championship (Chan) on Monday to book a quarterfinal place in the tournament.
The former Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns coach had suffered through two goalless draws in Zimbabwe’s opening two Group B matches in which they fluffed myriad goalscoring chances against Uganda and Morocco.
But a headed goal from Masimba Mambare in the second half of their last group game on Monday ensured a 1-0 win over Burkina Faso, second place in the standings and a quarterfinal tie against Mali.
“I was very emotional when it went in. It was a big relief, much more relief than exultation. We had been playing so well it wouldn’t have been fair if we hadn’t gone through,” said Gorowa as his side now prepared for Saturday’s meeting at the Cape Town Stadium.
“Finally we’ve broken the duck. We can still do a lot better – and when I say better, I mean in terms of scoring. But I see progress, we are becoming better. Hopefully we’ll score more in the quarterfinals. I can move with the momentum we have at the moment.”
Gorowa did not have much in the way of time or resources to prepare for the tournament. At one stage in December’s buildup he had to dip into his own pocket to pay for dinner for the squad when the Zimbabwe Football Association failed to stump up the necessary cash.
He had also been stumped by the failure to score in the first two games and made changes for Monday’s match that he felt swayed the result.
“We got rewarded because we took a risk by making three changes to ensure we were more attacking.”