South Africans responses to Bafana not qualifying for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations
How do YOU feel?
Posted: 2011-10-10 11:53
Going by the responses we have received to our 'five questions', KickOff.com readers are full of ideas about how to fix Bafana Bafana. Do you agree with them?
KickOff.com editor Ryan Cooper asked five questions following Bafana's embarrassing exit – you can read that article HERE.
Here are the best of the resonses we've had so far.
Do you agree with these views? Or do you have a better idea? Send an email to ryan.cooper@media24.com.
You can also catch us on Facebook, Twitter and Team KICK OFF.
From Ella:
I think Pitso should go for the following reasons:
- The coach is there to pick players with a will to win, discipline and pride to represent their country
- I do not believe that we should have a coach that plays for a draw when there is so much at stake
- I do not believe that the squad that played on Saturday is the best players that represents our country – the coach of England made it clear this weekend that he will select the best players on current form, this lesson he learned from his early exit from the World Cup. Current form matters, not what you have done in previous seasons
- How will Pitso ever better our away record with the above mentality?
Our soccer administration with no backbone will keep Pitso – for what it is worth my advice to you, Pitso, is stop choosing players that cannot rise to the occasion. I am not a professional coach, but surely I could have picked a team that would have come away with a win on Saturday.
From Nomsa Khanyile:
I couldn't agree with you more. Safa needs to save us further embarrassment and withdraw the appeal. I think reality has finally hit home – Bafana Bafana doesn't have the quality required for us to take part in such tournament. I think 2010 really had everyone fooled – the fact that as hosts we automatically qualified meant people forgot we actually need to put in the work to realise our potential.
We celebrated a mediocre performance at the World Cup, honestly, if France wasn't on strike then we wouldn't have won even a single game. We continued being positive and fully backing our boys believing they would start delivering and we always had excuses when the team didn't do well. If our main problem was the playing conditions in other African countries, then why didn't we win all our home games? It has to stop now. I've always maintained that Pitso was perhaps a great assistant coach but that doesn't make him a great coach. We need a complete paradigm shift for us to start performing at the level we should.
As for 2014, my friend and I were very excited at the prospect of watching Bafana Bafana doing their thing in Brazil but at this point I don't think they'll make it there so we are already thinking plan B – a worthy African team.
From Casious Maepa:
I completely agree with you Mr Cooper. The thing that surprises me with this was when Mr Pitso asked Mr Maponyane if we have qualified or not, but at the whistle the players were doing the Bokke dance. And then he went on to say that surely we should have won, instead he fielded four central midfielders! As for Mr Kirsten, I also think he should save us the embarrassment and withdraw the appeal.
From Chris Nobela in Nelspruit:
1. How can one plan a game without knowing the rules of the game?
2. How can one managed a football association without knowing the rules of the game?
The rules are clear – those who betray the country must resign now!!!!!!! Nematandani and Pitso: do the honourable thing and resign.
From Arnold Lukoto:
What exactly is Safa appealing?
I have one concern here. Niger, you saw how they played in Mbombela, they could have easily conceded 10 goals there. They played Egypt Under-23 and lost 3-0. They could have conceded 10-0 against a senior team.
What that means is if you have Niger and three top African teams in a group, Niger get thumped away and top teams cancel each other, Niger employ tactics to beat anyone in Niger and qualify.
One day we will have Niger in the World Cup (maybe 2014), you'll thank Safa if they fight this rule.
If you look at Group G, South Africa lost only one game. The only country to collect two points away and very unlucky not to win those games.
I would suggest Safa to push for:
4 points for away win
3 points for home win
2 points for away draw
1 point home draw.
From Abram:
I can't add more to what you have said. I kept asking myself, why is Khune wasting time? And when Pitso and Nematandani said they are not sure if they have qualified, I nearly changed my citizenship. How incompetent can they be? The rules were there from the start, and they affect anybody as they would Bafana Bafana.
Mr Maponyane kept on saying South Africa have qualified, from which rules was he basing his story?
But one thing we must learn as South Africans, stop complaining and stop asking favours from other people, just do your job. The permutations were simple, win against Sierra Leone and qualify, since Niger would not win away, the best Niger could do was a draw.
Should we fire Pitso, I would not necessarily support that.
From Siya:
Unfortunately, we have changed our game to be more tactical than entertaining. We previously had people who could play football, the Jabu Pules, Steve Lekoeleas, but we continuously discourage them and try to force them to change their squads.
This thing starts from the top, if Pitso himself was afraid to lose, there could be no way the boys could have made it.
We played like cowards.
The strength of South African football is two strikers, why is Mphela always alone up-front?
We are currently playing stupid football, period. Pitso's game is defensive and possesses no style. I would rather watch Maritzburg United than Bafana.
Pitso has anyway never been a good coach with the Bafana reins.
From Sifiso Ndaba:
I fully agree with your views and the Khune incident baffles me the most. Soccer fans tend to be the most hypocritical and selective in their comments. I just wonder what the former PSL CEO would have said about Khune's antics, remembering what he said about Josephs' during the Pirates-Swallows MTN8 Final?
Also, the Safa president wants to appeal and talks about rights … what rights? Does he mean Bafana must be treated differently? The other time he said The Pharaohs should field the old guns and now that The Pharaohs won and Bafana drew he suddenly wants to appeal.
To me, he was going to appeal anyway, even if Niger won for the same reason. Let him appeal and prove to the entire continent that he is a loser.
From: Nceba Ntweni in Eastern Cape
Thank you for such in-depth and accurate questions. I nearly got my head blown off since Saturday afternoon and yesterday by friends and family alike.
My questions were EXACTLY in that order – but particularly question 1! What does the team manager do if he can't let the rest of the technical team know the permutations?
BBK and Mark Gleeson emphasised the fact that Bafana had to WIN – not draw, but win at all costs.
BBK went as far as saying, and I quote, "It's a shame when our team (players, technical staff – including the coach and Safa) seem to be focusing their energies on securing a draw. We need to win this game by at least two goals."
His words, not mine. And the powers that be were not even aware of this? As for the SABC and its analysts, I'd rather reserve my comments.
Clint Roper said it in one of his online analyses, Mark Gleeson did it – and I think it was about a week or two ago that all three gentlemen did this analyses.
This is really an embarrassment for our country and, well, sports administration in general. Worse when our national coach had to ask a journalist if we had qualified.
1. Firing Pitso won't help. Safa needs to get its house in order. At Safa House they seem to be going around in circles, like a dog chasing its own tail.
2. I will not shed a teardrop for those bigots we call players – shameful. An Under-20 team – holding us to a draw. An Egyptian Under-23 team walloped Niger, and showed no mercy.
3. Safa needs to look at our development structures (a cry that was made by Clive Barker way back in '96 – just after we won the Afcon). Nothing has ever been done.
4. We need players that play for each other and wear the jersey with pride.
5. We need a president and Safa executive that has the best interests of football at heart – not people fighting to keep their fat paychecks and fight each other for positions. We can start by supporting Danny Jordaan in his bid for Cosafa.
6. We have an Under-12 team from Lusikisiki going to play in the Under-12 Danone World Cup in Spain. We won't hear a peep about these boys EVER again – just like the last lot that we knocked out in the finals a few years back. Those boys should have been our Under-23s by now. Instead we keep on rebuilding each time our national youth teams have to go out to represent the country.
Lastly, we need a moer of a big broom to sweep the whole lot of useless dead weight out of the Bafana set-up, Safa as well as any other football sphere, with immediate effect! How many tournaments are we going to qualify for either by default or being hosts?
From: Bulumko Skeyi
It doesn't matter a DAMN now! BBK and Mark Gleeson said this a week ago – that Bafana NEEDED to win and NOT play for a draw. Let's look at the main thing here, our players FAIL to score goals. Any football coach worth his salt will tell you that goals WIN games. Pitso said it a few days before the game, and I quote, "A draw for Bafana will see us through."
Now to get back to Ryan's question 1 – why did the team manager NOT tell the technical staff of the rules of the tournament? Clive Barker knows of the rule – it has been there for years. We just must stop being sore losers and Safa must just get its house in order and STOP being DEFENSIVE like Dennis Mumble was Pedro Mapelo a couple of weeks back.
It's at their DOORSTEP – we can't blame the media. They can ONLY do so much! Football administrators ADMINISTER football – they are the ones who should be leading us – NOT the other way round! I detest the fact that we NEVER see the bigger picture – we cry foul when things don't go our way. It has happened – time to move ON!!!
From: Mndeni Sishange
- Firstly, I feel very sorry for the people who paid their money to go and watch generations actors (Khune) on the field rather than players willing to die for their country …
- When we play away we complain about pitch, referee, food, water, hotels etc … so on Saturday what is our excuse? Oh, I forgot, we did not familiarise ourselves with the rules … Safa asked for the fans to support the team and the fans were there, the pitch was magnificent …
- I am so flabbergasted, for God's sake, for the entire first half no shot at goal was made, but we are playing at home what do you call that?
- Why pick so many midfielders and no strikers, eg Fanteni, Khenyeza, the list goes on?
- Those guys never threatened us, why did the technical staff not encourage our right-back to overlap like Jele usually does? It was very clear from the first 15 minutes that our central defenders were capable of containing their forwards, and in fact they only had that one guy who got injured during the first 10 minutes of the game … so they became toothless, but our technical staff continued flooding midfield players instead of pushing for strikers.
- We are playing at home, a win should have been our only goal, even if Egypt had lost, at least that would have been a better consolation for all those people who went to support the team.
- Lastly, if Egypt can put three goals past with a youth team, what was so difficult for us to secure at least a draw against Niger when we played away from home? Clearly we do not deserve to go and complete at the Afcon because I do not think we were going to even get a point.
- Both players and technical staff should be so ashamed of themselves, you know when you watch rugby and you see the so-called smaller countries like Fiji, Samoa, Argentina … their players crying during the singing of their national anthem, you immediately get a sense that those guys are there to give their all no matter what, and they lose with dignity, not like our players who enjoy walking around in the malls appearing at parties as if they are the Madonnas of this world …
This means that between January and February we will be sucking our thumbs as they will be no soccer and knowing the SABC there is a great chance that we will not even see the Afcon matches.
What a Monday … I am so disappointed, thank God I changed my mind about driving to Mbombela otherwise I would be caring for the kilometres clocked in my car for such a mediocre performance.
I hope Mashaba managed to travel to Egypt because it seems Egypt have assembled a very dangerous youth team …
: 2011-10-10 12:38
Comment on this article:
TERMS OF USE: The comments posted below do not reflect the views of KickOff.com. Users are reminded that no misuse of this comment facility will be tolerated. Any abusive, racist or inflammatory comments will be deleted and the user banned. Please report abusive posts to editor@kickoff.com