Andrew Muchineripi
South Africa will lack the dribbling skills of Steve Lekoelea when they meet Zambia in the All Africa Games football tournament semi-finals at Orlando Stadium on Friday. Lekoelea picked up two of the many yellow cards flashed during the mini-league first phase of the quadrennial championship and must serve an automatic one-match suspension.
The other semi-final pits physically formidable Cameroon against surprise packages Uganda, and the organisers will hope for a South Africa-Cameroon final at Johannesburg Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Once the enfant terrible of South African soccer, Lekoelea has matured physically and mentally and his wing wizardry will be sorely missed by Amaglug-glug and his many young fans. Given a free role by coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba, Lekoelea has popped up on both sides of a bumpy Orlando Stadium pitch and also drifted into the middle to introduce an element of surprise.
This humble member of the Muchineripi clan hastens to add that South Africa are no one-man show, that there is life after Lekoelea, that we can defeat Zambia and pave the way for Lekoelea to return on Sunday.
A disappointing goalless draw with Uganda apart, South Africa have impressed. They defeated Algeria 2-0 in their opening match and outplayed highly rated Mali 4-1 two days later.
Another player to catch the eye was Hareaipha “Simba” Marumo from Italian club Inter Milan, the only foreign-based player in a local-is-lekker Mashaba squad. Not particularly well-endowed physically, Marumo compensates through graft, an eye for vacant space and arguably the most important asset any striker can possess, courage.
Siyabonga Nomvete, in and out of the Kaizer Chiefs team like a yo-yo last season, has also made his mark, scoring three times to be joint leading scorer with Adama Kone from Cte d’Ivoire.
Strikers nearly always create the headlines and action replays, especially in Africa, where the art of defending is conveniently sacrificed for the greater good of showmanship.
Yet, for all the crowd-pleasing teasing of Lekoelea, Marumo and Nomvete, where would South Africa be without the equally skilful if less appreciated abilities of defensive bulwarks Matthew Booth and Fabien McCarthy? Both have represented the country at senior level and ranked among the best defenders in the first round.
So good, in fact, that goalkeeper Wayne Roberts has been given no chance to claim overtime allowances. It took a well- struck first-minute free kick from Malian midfielder Soumalia Coulibaly to pierce the Amaglug-glug rearguard and, significantly, Cameroon also conceded only one goal in three matches.
Booth looks like a refugee from the Springbok training camp, given his lock- like build, and apart from performing his defensive duties with diligence, he has not hesitated to press forward when space and time permit.
McCarthy, a virtual unknown defender at unfashionable Bloemfontein Celtic one season back, is on a steep learning curve and appears to have the necessary attributes for a successful international career.
While the Mail & Guardian predicted last week that South Africa and Cameroon would reach the semi-finals and that Zambia were dark horses, Uganda took us by surprise.
A tough qualifying programme that produced victories over Ethiopia, Kenya and Eritrea obviously set them up nicely and the financially challenged East Africans spent far more time in camp than relatively rich South Africa.