Merryman Kunene One of South Africa’s biggest Olympic disappointments came from the under-23 soccer team who failed to reach the quarterfinals after a couple of bad results against so-called weaker sides (Japan and Slovakia), and one glorious win over Brazil.
“For me it is difficult to comment on the other sports and how the National Olympic Committee of South Africa [Nocsa] selects its teams but I can say that soccer has always selected players on merit,” said Barney Kujane, the under-23s’ manager. Kujane, while disappointed with his team’s early exit, contends that just competing in Sydney was a success. “People have to consider that it was the first time we had competed in such a tournament as a country and maybe stage fright affected my players in the first game against Japan.” Kujane was backed by his captain Matthew Booth, who conceded, however, that it was really difficult for his players to motivate themselves for the Slovakians after the Brazil win. For Booth, race or the composition of the team has never entered his mind. “As far as I am concerned everyone deserved to be in the squad and our overall assessment is that we did well. With good preparations we could have done better,” said Booth. “There are many factors which contributed
to the loss against Slovakia, among them the unavailability of Quinton Fortune – whose experience was sorely missed on the field,” says Kujane. Other off-the-field factors seemed to conspire against Amaglug-glug, including the lack of practice matches – only one friendly match was played after qualification.
The South African Football Association (Safa) may have blundered by not co-opting the senior national team coach. To compound matters, under-23 coach Shakes Mashaba was suspended for the first two matches and had to watch from the stands, raising questions about Safa’s wisdom in letting him go to Sydney.
He was banned from the touchline during the final qualifying match against New Zealand for abusing the referee. Kujane defends the decision to let Mashaba stay in charge and sticks by his coach. “I do not believe that bringing in the Bafana Bafana coach was going to help us in any way and it is unfortunate that Safa failed to get Fifa to lift the ban on Mashaba in time for the Olympics,” said Kujane. With the Olympics gone, Safa will be looking at rebuilding the under-23 side and Kujane, whose contract expires this month, thinks it will be up to the association to make changes wherever they deem necessary. It is not just Kujane or Mashaba who will be fighting to keep their positions in the aftermath of South Africa’s disastrous outing in Sydney, Nocsa will have to take stock, provide answers to these pertinent issues or make way for fresh ideas.