Andrew Muchineripi Soccer
It is exactly 100 days since Shaun Bartlett converted a late penalty kick to earn Bafana Bafana a 2-2 draw with Saudi Arabia before departing the World Cup stage.
The wind of Marseille, the heat of Toulouse and the tranquillity of Bordeaux are rapidly fading memories along with controversial French coach Philippe Troussier.
Monsieur Troussier is now in charge of 2002 World Cup co-hosts Japan, and it will be interesting to see how the Naughty Boy Mokoenas of the Far East get along with the white wizard.
Trott Moloto, assistant to Troussier in France, has been appointed caretaker coach of Bafana Bafana and his first examination comes at FNB Stadium on Saturday against Angola.
This match signals the start of the Group Four qualifying campaign for the 2000 African Nations Cup in Zimbabwe with Gabon hosting Mauritius 24 hours later in leafy Libreville.
The schedule has been kind to 1996 champions and 1998 runners-up South Africa with the Angola fixture followed by a trip to Mauritius (January 24) and a visit from Gabon (February 27).
There is no reason why Bafana Bafana should not accumulate a maximum nine points by the halfway stage of the mini-league, from which the first-and second-placed teams qualify for the 16 nation finals.
The going becomes significantly tougher in the second half with a return match in Gabon (April 11), a home match with Mauritius (June 5) and a visit to Angola (June 20).
While three more victories would be very nice, draws in Libreville and Luanda and a handsome victory over Mauritius would leave South Africa sitting pretty at the top of the table.
Perhaps the predictions of this proud member of the Muchineripi clan lack the gung-ho nationalism of some rival publications, with one weekend newspaper talking about Angola being “a piece of cake”.
Maybe they will be, but I do not foresee the Black Panthers from the west coast of Africa crumbling like carefully stacked cards hit by a sudden gust of wind through an open window.
Let us cast our minds back two years to a modestly populated FNB Stadium on a wet January afternoon when a solitary Mark Williams goal separated the teams in the Nations Cup finals.
Even the goal had an element of luck with an Eric Tinkler free kick slamming into the Angolan defensive wall and rebounding favourably for Williams to seize the half chance.
Further evidence that there is not an awful lot between two of the strongest football nations in Southern Africa came more recently at the 1998 Nations Cup in Burkina Faso.
The Omnisport Stadium in Bobo-Dioulasso saw an even more defensive struggle with no goals, few scoring opportunities and some bad-tempered moments, notably when Aurelio de Sousa Soares met Benni McCarthy.
De Sousa Soares, being an experienced intimidator, angered McCarthy beyond the sight of the referee, and McCarthy, being an inexperienced international, retaliated in front of the referee.
McCarthy somehow escaped the red card he deserved and went on to become joint leading scorer with Egyptian Hossam Hassan and was voted the outstanding player of the tournament. Now that is what I call good luck.
While South Africa probably surprised even themselves by reaching a decider they lost to Egypt, Angola were held 3-3 by Namibia and walloped 5-2 by Cte d’Ivoire and caught an early plane home.
South Africa went on to Argentina, Germany and France while Angola had to settle for the somewhat more mundane Castle Cup destinations of Mbabane, Windhoek and Maputo.
Angola finished a five-match Southern Africa championship programme unbeaten, but finished only third behind Zambia and Zimbabwe due to three consecutive draws.
Moloto saw the Panthers overcome Zimbabwe 2-1 in their last mini-league match thanks to a blatant handball goal from Alexio Amaral and expressed confidence that Bafana Bafana would not be unduly troubled.
The coach has suffered a few pre-match blows with a suspension carried over from France ruling out Alfred Phiri, an injury sidelining Delron Buckley and club commitments forcing Hans Vonk to withdraw.
There is still a wealth of talent at the disposal of the former Bush Bucks coach with Brian Baloyi an obvious and capable replacement for Vonk, who had a European Cup-Winners Cup engagement in Poland on Thursday night.
Trott was certainly brave to include Pierre Issa, whose two own-goals and two conceded penalties seemed to set him up for the guillotine. The same sort of courage on the field should see Bafana Bafana off to winning start.