Fans need to get behind Bafana
Aside from the two Nigeria goals that should have stood, Bafana Bafana can be proud of their performance against the Super Eagles in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at the FNB Stadium.
We played with a lot of guts. In the beginning, our defence was a bit shaky, but at least we managed to contain them. Ahmed Musa gave our defence many problems, I was worried about Thamsanqa Mkhize in the first few minutes. I don’t think he was ready for the pace of Musa and company, but as the game wore on he got a bit more confident. Bafana were well-prepared but I was a bit surprised by the inclusion of Mkhize, but I think Baxter knew the threat that would be on his wing and thought he could be a bit stronger defensively.
The difficulty for Bafana is consistency, we saw that in the two matches against the Seychelles. If we can duplicate this performance against Nigeria in the game against Libya, I am confident we can get the point we need. But we didn’t travel well last time, and we saw what Libya did to the Seychelles away (won 8-1). That is what we should have done.
The lack of support Bafana had on Saturday is alarming. In qualification it should be a strength to have home advantage and to be outnumbered by Nigerian fans says a lot. South African football is not where it should be, but by not supporting the team we are not helping the situation. We need to get behind Bafana, the players and the coach.
I don’t think the national team should need to market itself, people should know Bafana are playing and come in numbers. If Bafana want fans back, however, maybe they should give free entry to the stadium, or discount tickets, adopt a different style. We need more than ever to get people around the national team.
I think Stuart Baxter will help Bafana qualify for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. He is the man for the job right now. This is no time anyway to make changes, it will just add to the instability.
In terms of a lack of substitutions, who does Baxter have on the bench? Who do we look to? You can’t have subs for the sake of it. However, I do think we could have taken Mothiba off and given someone a 15- to 20-minute run. Dino Ndlovu scored at the FNB Stadium against the Seychelles. There should be a bit more action from Baxter when it comes to subs, even the fans were starting to get impatient. The introduction of Vincent Pule could also have worked wonders, just to mix things up. Percy Tau was running riot and the introduction of Pule could have opened a gap for a different kind of striker. Especially in the second half I would have loved to see a few more tactical changes.
Tau’s performance was brilliant. When we come up against the bigger African sides, we need to stick to our strengths. It is difficult for a big Nigerian defender to track someone as skilful as Percy Tau. We need those onetwo touches, with players like Thulani Serero, even though he didn’t have his best game. We must play to our strengths in the final third, that is the only way we can impose ourselves. We saw it with the goal.
Tiyani Mabunda and Hlompho Kekana came into midfield. They are different types of defensive midfielder to Dean Furman. They are not as industrious but tactically they were on point and that is what we needed.