The good, the bad and the ugly: an eventful year for football
WHAT a year it has been for South African football. Not quite the best ever, but it should go right up there with some of the most memorable.
Think back to the national under-17 team qualifying for the Fifa World Cup in Chile, or when Banyana Banyana striker Jermaine Seoposenwe banged home the winning goal against continental giants Equatorial Guinea to secure the 2016 Rio Olympics qualification.
There was also Stuart Baxter and his Kaizer Chiefs team that finished the league season with a record-breaking 69 points in winning the Absa Premiership, with defender Tefu Mashamaite sweeping up all the big gongs at the Premier Soccer League (PSL) awards in Sandton, Johannesburg. Mamelodi Sundowns may have missed out on the league title, but they have lots to smile about with the Nedbank Cup and Telkom Knockout titles in the cabinet at Chloorkop.
We cannot forget Ajax Cape Town’s youngsters, who upset Chiefs in the MTN8 final to claim their first trophy since 2008.
That said, there’s always the good, the bad and the ugly.
The year hasn’t gone without controversy, such as Lindile “Ace” Kika being banned from all football activities for six years after his involvement in the match-fixing scandal of Bafana Bafana’s games before the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Here’s a wrap of an eventful year.
The Sundowns coach narrowly beats national under-17 coach Molefi Ntseki to this award.
He saved what would have been a disastrous season for the star-studded Brazilians when they won the Nedbank Cup in May after finishing second in the Absa Premiership.
On December 16 they won their second competition, outclassing Chiefs in the Telkom Knockout final. Sundowns will start the new year at the top of the standings, eager to stay up there until the season ends. KABO YELLOW: Mamelodi Sundowns players — Thabo Nthethe, right, Bongani Zungu, top, Teko Modise, left, and Keagan Dolly — celebrate the Telkom Knockout win
The goal-scoring machine made the country forget about Portia Modise’s retirement very quickly, scoring goals for fun as she inspired the team to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The US-based striker banged in five goals in the Olympic qualifiers, including the all-important winner against Equatorial Guinea.
Orlando Pirates, Ajax and the under-17s come close, but Sundowns have done extremely well to win two knockout competitions this year — Nedbank Cup and Telkom Knockout.
They finished second last season and are currently top of the standings. Their juniors — under-15s, 17s and 19s — all won major tournaments this year.
Seven months after his father died, February produced one of the finest performances by a goalkeeper to guide the South SENSATIONAL: Banyana Banyana striker Jermaine Seoposenwe is in great form African Under-23 national team to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Four penalty saves by the 19year-old in the third-place playoff against the Caf Under-23 Championship hosts Senegal, including one in regulation time, secured a spot at the Games for the first time since 2000. Not bad for the Urban Warriors’ third-choice keeper.
Maritzburg United chairman Farook Kadodia just misses out on this one for firing Mandla Ncikazi five matches into the new season and sacking his replacement, Clive Barker, for being too old. The winner is Kika, the man who was first to bite the dust in the Fifa match-fixing scandal investigation. His ban is said to have been just the start.
This one goes to two players, Thamsanqa Gabuza and Collins Mbesuma. A fringe player all of last season, Orlando Pirates’ forward Gabuza was handed a lifeline in the Caf Confederation Cup and earned a spot in the Bafana team thanks to his heroics in the continental club competition. He scored great goals.
A trimmer Mbesuma of Mpumalanga Black Aces is having his best season since the 2004/05 campaign at Chiefs. The Zambian is leading the scoring charts with seven goals.
Itumeleng Khune found out that despite being Chiefs’ star player for years, Amakhosi were not going to beg him to stay. He was shown the door when he chanced his arm a little too much at the contract renegotiations. But just before the start of the season, when he was without a club to join, Khune went back to Amakhosi and was said to have taken a salary cut.
The Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea was a disaster for Bafana Bafana. Not only did they fail to win their three group matches after scoring first, coach Shakes Mashaba surprisingly used three goalkeepers in the competition.
That, and Bafana’s defeat to Mauritania in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, is something South Africans will not want to remember.