Egg on face for Baxter if they fail

And so it goes down to the wire. Bafana Bafana will face Libya, probably somewhere in North Africa in March, needing a win or a draw to advance to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Defeat will leave Stuart Baxter’s men with egg on their faces, having somehow bungled a campaign that looked a certain hit when they won in Uyo against Nigeria in March 2017.

Saturday’s draw with the Super Eagles at the FNB Stadium means that Bafana have taken four points off the strongest side in the group, a fine effort, were it not contrasted with the points they dropped, against Libya at home and in the Seychelles. Both are games Bafana should have won, and if they had won either, they, like Nigeria, would already be booking their tickets for a June trip to Cameroon.

Baxter blamed everything from Seychelles’ players, to the pitch, to the ball-boys after Bafana could only managed a draw away from home in October, and he continued to harp on about that pitch after Saturday’s draw, describing it as “an anomaly”.

And yet, on the same day Baxter said this, Libya won 8-1 on the same surface at the Stade Linite in Victoria. 8-1! There will simply be nowhere left to hide for the Bafana head coach if he loses to Libya on March 22.

There have to be questions about his tactics in the last couple of matches too, when Baxter has failed to make substitutions that might have altered the course of a game. He made just one change against the Seychelles, with Aubrey Modiba replacing Lebo Maboe, and one against Nigeria on Saturday, with Thembinkosi Lorch coming on for Thulani Serero.

To make few changes if your side is winning is understandable, but to do it when the scores are level, with qualification for Cameroon 2019 in the balance is bizarre, and smacks of a man more scared of losing than hell-bent on winning.

Certainly against Nigeria, it would have done no damage – just to pride and morale – had Bafana lost to the Super Eagles. They would still need a point against Libya to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations. So why not throw caution to the wind and hurl on a couple more attacking players in the final stages at the FNB Stadium?

Bafana, of course, still hold most of the aces on the road to Cameroon. They are unbeaten in qualifying so far, and if they continue that, they will make it. Baxter’s side also have an advantage, in that the March game “away” to Libya is set to be played on neutral territory. Libya hosted the Seychelles in Egypt and Nigeria in Tunisia.

This removes a certain sense of home advantage for the Mediterranean Knights, though it has to be said that a sense of home advantage was removed for Bafana on Saturday, so desolate was the FNB Stadium. There has been a lot of questioning of people’s patriotism in the wake of the poor turnout against the Super Eagles, but I have sympathy with Bafana fans if this is what kept them away.

After all, Bafana have flattered to deceive for years, and are now nowhere near the top of the continental game. It is up to the Bafana players to start producing the kind of performances that will draw fans back to the stadiums.

A start would be qualifying for another Africa Cup of Nations. If Bafana fail to do so, after the win in Uyo, and given that this tournament has been expanded to 24 teams, giving everyone a greater chance of making it, it would be an effort that would surely rank as the most embarrassing ever, even in a history of this footballing nation full of moments to cringe over.