Andrew Muchineripi: Soccer
No sooner had caretaker coach Jomo Sono ditched the Bafana Bafana old guard than successor Philippe Troussier wants to bring them back for the World Cup in France during June.
Labelled the “tried and trusted” by former coach Clive Barker and rejected as the “tired and detested” by large sections of the media, many of the former national stars are now also battling at club level.
Andre Arendse is the third-choice goalkeeper at Fulham, Sizwe Motaung cannot make the Kaizer Chiefs first team, Eric Tinkler has been dropped by Barnsley and Doctor Khumalo only came on at halftime for Chiefs last weekend.
Neil Tovey continues as a first-team player at the Amakhosi, “Shoes” Moshoeu was recalled for the African Nations Cup without much success, Mark Williams is in Saudi Arabia, and Shaun Bartlett has rejoined Cape Town Spurs.
Given this situation, only experienced former captain Tovey and back-in-form Bartlett appear to be realistic candidates for places in World Cup warm-up matches against opponents to be named. Colombia were considered as possible mid-March opponents, but while the South African Football Association (Safa) thought about playing them, the South Americans organised a game against Yugoslavia.
An invitation lies on the desk of Safa chief executive officer Danny Jordaan from the United Arab Emirates, inviting Bafana Bafana to a four-nation tournament in Dubai next month with the hosts, Croatia and Iran.
There has also been talk of matches in Bulgaria and Croatia ahead of the 32-nation finals with South Africa opening their Group C campaign against France on June 12 in the port city of Marseille.
Troussier officially became coach on Monday after talks in Paris with Safa officials. No details of the contract were revealed although one need not be a brain surgeon to know that Monsieur Philippe will receive R50 000-plus a month.
The Frenchman is scheduled to arrive “soon” following a personal triumph at the 1998 African Nations Cup where he took lowly Burkina Faso to a fourth place that could so easily have been third. Burkina Faso were leading the Democratic Republic of Congo 4-1 with four minutes left in the third place playoff in Ouagadougou only to concede three goals and lose the penalty shootout.
Last year, Troussier guided Nigeria safely through a World Cup qualifying campaign and had considerable success with the national team in Ivory Coast besides coaching Kaizer Chiefs, ASEC of Abidjan and FUS of Morocco. Why he would want to make wholesale changes to the team that finished runners-up to Egypt in the Nations Cup is a mystery as Sono, assistant Trott Moloto and Eddie Lewis and Patrick ‘Ace’ Ntsoelengoe were widely applauded.
That is not to say that Bafana Bafana are ready to conquer the world, but from the ruins of an ageing team without a victory in six matches came a younger team whose victims included fellow World Cup finalists Morocco.
Brian Baloyi grew substantially as a goalkeeper during the tournament, reserve Simon Gopane acquitted himself well in his one appearance and Dutch-based Hans Vonk is worthy of consideration.
After the Castle Cup debacle in Namibia, the defence tightened although man markers Andrew Rabutla and Willem Jackson looked cumbersome and slow at times, especially against the fleet-footed Ivorians.
There could also be an argument for swapping sweeper Mark Fish and defensive midfielder Lucas Radebe because the Feeeeesh is better going forward while Rhoo defends better.
Midfield also has room for improvement with John Moeti heading for trouble with referees unless he improves a tackling technique that often finds him coming in late with studs showing.
The time has surely come to thank Moshoeu for his efforts since January 1993 and bring in young talent like Quinton Fortune, who showed promise in several Nations Cup appearances as a substitute.
Attack, once the centre of concern, has been transformed by the arrival of a 20-year-old from the Cape Flats. While Philemon Masinga was unimpressive in the final, he had missed the previous three matches through a recurring hamstring injury. Get better, Chippa, we need you in France to provide the ammunition for Benni.