Safe for now, but . . .
While the future of the incumbent coach hangs in the balance, Bareng-Batho Kortjaas reflects on a man who has been through the lot — from ecstasy to agony
SHAKES Mashaba is not an innocent bystander in the mess Bafana Bafana find themselves in.
Not by a long shot. One win from six matches is a result that is acceptable in a game of marbles among kindergarten kids — and only just. It has no place in international football.
Failure to qualify for the 2017 African Nations Cup (Afcon) in Gabon has the nation up in arms. Rightly so! Even a retard knows that a group comprising Gambia, Mauritania and Cameroon was winnable by a mile. After failing to top the group, there was still a chance to qualify as one of the best three runners-up. However, Bafana still found squeezing through that eye of the needle a mountain to climb.
They left the nation more morose with the moribund performance in the academic exercise that was the final qualifying match against Mauritania in Mbombela. It ended in a drab 1-1 draw.
It is against that backdrop that the gospel for Mashaba to get the guillotine was preached in even higher-pitched voices from some pulpits.
To what end? Let the South African Football Association (Safa) fire Mashaba. Let them fire him now. And hire who? He is on a one-year contract and is interested in the job, but Gavin Hunt is happy at Wits. For now. Pitso Mosimane still hasn’t put pen to paper on his contract at Mamelodi Sundowns. But he is not about to jump ship. Not now.
The other option is to cast the net beyond the borders of the republic.
They don’t come cheap, those chaps from European foreign lands and cash-strapped Safa can’t stretch their coffers any further.
South Africans must disabuse themselves from perpetuating the myth that a foreign coach will be a panacea to Bafana’s problems.
The facts speak for themselves: Three times Bafana climbed the Afcon podium, their fortunes were in the hands of Clive Barker (gold in 1996), Jomo Sono (silver in 1998) and Trott Moloto (bronze in 2002).
Safa can ill-afford to get overexcited and blinded by the emotional pain we feel right now.
Lest the silky suited mandarins forget, they gave “Mr Don’t Call Me Arrogant I’ve Got Grandchildren” a twin mandate: get Bafana to Gabon and make sure they reach Russia for the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
He failed on the first front. The argument advanced by the Shakes-must-go brigade is what hope in hell does he have to qualify Bafana for the World Cup when he failed to book a berth for Afcon.
A fallacious argument may be deceptive. Reaching a conclusion that just because Mashaba has made Gabon a no-go zone therefore Russia will be a bridge too far for him is too simplistic. There is no therefore in football. For the better part of the last decade, Bafana have grossly underperformed. Mashaba grabbed them by the scruff of the neck and shook them out of their slumber. Some of the old guard who previously were ever-present were dropped. Room was made for younger, fresher players to populate the team. They romped through their group for the 2015 Afcon. Things came a cropper at the tournament proper as they dumped the nation in the doldrums of disappointment with early elimination.
But true to their schizophrenic nature, they deliver exciting top-drawer stuff — mainly when they ex- change friendly fire. Impressive performances against Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, Senegal, Egypt come to mind. So polished was the Costa Rica performance, it left Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas waxing lyrical about South Africa’s ability.
Going forward, Mashaba must give South Africa more of those moments and less of the senseless showing in the 3-1 defeat away to Mauritania.
If the 2015 campaign was super, the 2017 ONE was a downright stinker. Still, anger against Mashaba cannot erase the fact that he has the best percentage of success at the helm of the team.
“The way the boys played against Egypt, they brought the spark, energy, commitment, flair and I think if they continue with the spark, they can compete,” Safa’s Danny Jordaan, who hammered Bafana for their ho-hum play against Mauritania, told Sowetan after the Egypt encounter. Mashaba must not be fooled. Jordaan is not his biggest cheerleader and is at the end of his tether with the coach’s clumsy ways. He wants him gone. Mashaba doesn’t help himself with being tactless in his speech. He is wont to froth at the mouth. Testimony to that was abundant in his nonsensical, comical comments in the weeks that followed the massacre in Nouakchott. He’ll be a fool not to see the flashing warning signs. Mashaba has already had his ear burnt by a tongue-lashing from Jordaan. On Monday the Safa president and a couple of members of the executive descended on the team camp at the Milpark Hotel. “They made it clear to him that he must shape up or ship out.
“The president made it known that Safa were very unhappy with how the team played against Mauritania,” a Safa insider told the Sunday Times. “Shakes was told that there had to be an improvement.” The ball is in Mashaba’s court. He’s safe for now. But a poor result against Burkina Faso in the 2018 World Cup qualifier on October 8 will spell the end of his Bafana reign before he could finish saying Russia.
But true to Bafana Bafana’s schizophrenic nature, they deliver exciting top drawer stuff — mainly when they exchange friendly fire