Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer
On a cold, wet evening in the industrial heartland of Germany the inevitable happened last weekend with the champions of Europe showing the champions of Africa just how wide the gap is between the continents on the football field.
Bafana Bafana apologists have made much of their understrength team, conveniently forgetting that Germany lacked such luminaries as Matthias Sammer, Jurgen Kohler and Jurgen Klinsmann.
The result is no cause for South African supporters to start leaping from high-rise buildings as anything less than a convincing German victory would have been a surprise.
Germany have been a major world football force for decades; South Africa have been competing internationally for five years. The progress made by Bafana Bafana has been nothing short of miraculous compared to other African nations.
Zambia have been trying without success for more years than they dare count to win the African Nations Cup or qualify for the World Cup finals. South Africa achieved both feats at only the second attempt. However, what is abundantly clear after Dusseldorf is that playing African teams is one thing; tackling European giants like Germany something else.
To the credit of South Africa they are trying to bridge that gap. Make no mistake, there will be more defeats, some even more painful than Dusseldorf before South Africa can hold their own in Europe. It is a unique and daunting challenge not even star-studded Nigeria have attempted.
The immediate South African target is to make a favourable impression in the 1998 World Cup, which will be preceded by appearances in the Confederations Cup next month and the African Nations Cup from early February.
Judged by Dusseldorf, South Africa stand less chance of advancing to the knockout second phase of the World Cup than Kaizer Chiefs PRO Louis Tshakoane taking a vow of silence.
Why such pessimism? Because the match in Germany exposed such a wide range of technical deficiencies among the majority of South African players that coach Clive Barker can hardly hope to rectify them inside seven months. Even world champions Brazil seldom try and play around just outside their own penalty area when under pressure. South Africa did, and when Helman Mkhalele conceded possession, over came the cross that produced goal number two.
Much criticism has been heaped on recalled goalkeeper Mark Anderson, but considering he has never faced crosses of such quality before, the results were hardly surprising.
Until the greedy men who run the Premier Soccer League reduce the national championship to no more than 14 clubs, mediocrity can continue and Anderson will deal comfortably with crosses barely worthy of the name. The South African defence was a shambles at times with desperate clearances rebounding off team-mates and wingbacks Helman Mkhalele and David Nyathi failing miserably in their efforts to block German assaults down the flanks.
Central defenders Mark Fish, newcomer Pierre Issa and captain Lucas Radebe are no pygmies, yet they constantly battled in the air as they tried to counter well-timed German advances while facing their own goal. Mkhalele should have been dropped after performing poorly in France while Nyathi could offer some excuse in that he has been absent from the international scene for many months.
Diminutive German captain Thomas Hassler ran the midfield show from start to finish, leaving one to question why a five-man technical team of Barker, Phil Setshedi, Augusto Palacios, Horst Kriete and Shakes Mashaba could not find a solution.
While Brendan Augustine toiled ceaselessly without achieving much and Eric Tinkler produced one of his poorest performances, the one ray of hope in midfield was debutant Jabu Mnguni from Vaal Professionals. A promising debut could have been enhanced just before half-time when Mnguni cleverly worked himself into a scoring position within the penalty area, but inexperience led to a hasty, high shot.
Why Mnguni was the first player to be substituted early in the second half instead of the incredibly ineffective Shaun Bartlett appeared strange, and the Vaal Monster deserves another chance sooner rather than later.
Closely-policed Philemon Masinga had one of his quietest games and given the rapidly- spreading reputation of the leading Bafana Bafana scorer, he can expect similar close attention in France come June. South Africa rely too much on Masinga and perhaps young Benni McCarthy will provide the diversity as he made a far greater impact than Bartlett and was not too far off target on two occasions.