Shakes gets thumbs up from sports minister
Of course we will be worried (if we do not qualify for the Nations Cup), but I think we’re ensuring we qualify
EPHRAIM ‘‘Shakes” Mashaba may be staring down the barrel of a loaded gun, but Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula insists that the increasingly pressured Bafana Bafana coach is not going anywhere.
Mashaba has cut a forlorn figure in the aftermath of Bafana’s humbling in the Cosafa Cup — Bafana were left to ponder the ignominy of failing to score a goal or win a match in a tournament they hosted in NorthWest — and the indifferent results have only served to heighten the predictable chorus for his head.
The honeymoon is definitely over for the Bafana coach, but Mbalula said he was more interested in what happens in the qualifiers of the 2017 African Nations Cup next month rather than in what has just transpired in the regional tournament.
‘‘We can’t be worried, we are on a journey of development and we need to take it one game at a time,” Mbalula said.
‘‘Losing at any given point is not an issue. The question before us is Afcon qualification in 2017 and then it is the qualification for the 2018 World Cup. Those are the hallmarks of success. Losing in Cosafa means nothing.
‘‘Of course we will be worried (if we do not qualify for the Nations Cup, but I think we are doing work with regards to ensuring that we qualify. I am optimistic that we will qualify in the group that we have been drawn in and I am certain we will be in Gabon in 2017.”
Mashaba has been under the cosh after defeats on penalties to neighbours Botswana and Malawi dumped Bafana out of the regional event. Mbalula’s vote of confidence will have helped to keep the baying mob at bay in a week when the Bafana coach seemed to buckle under the strain.
‘‘Cosafa Cup is a development competition and I am not deterred by losing on penalties,” Mbalula said. I am happy that Shakes has treated the Cosafa Cup as a development competition and given players who normally do not have exposure at international level an opportunity to have a run. I am quite confident that will add up in future to a formidable side.
“I think he has also had an opportunity to expose some of the young talent to his particular competition, which is very important for us.”
Mashaba’s state of denial in post-match press conferences will have given his detractors ammunition rather than help for his cause.
The coach identified Botswana’s defensiveness, when smaller teams almost always will be defensive against bigger international sides.
It is Mashaba’s stubbornness and fire in the belly that drives him. It won him a lot of friends as the coach bravely picked young players for a team badly in need of an injection of youth qualifying for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in swashbuckling style. Like most people, his strength can also be his weakness.
Mashaba would have come across better in the Cosafa post-match press conferences admitting his team had not played well. He could have said they could not gel and that he was mystified why not, given Bafana had two weeks in camp and four warm-up matches. That he was bitterly disappointed, because he had really wanted to win the competition.
Bafana are drawn with Gambia, Cameroon and Mauritania in the 2017 Afcon qualifiers. The squad is expected to be named next week and they begin the Nations Cup qualifiers with a home fixture against Gambia at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on June 13.