A home match against Burkina Faso represents the second-easiest of eight missions Bafana Bafana face as they seek a second consecutive appearance at the World Cup finals.
The four away matches, naturally, present the toughest tasks and one cannot stress enough what a good start our national team made by winning 2-0 in Harare last July. My belief is that Zimbabwe and Group E pacesetters Guinea will be the toughest nuts to crack in South Africa, followed by Burkina Faso and Malawi, who are away to Guinea this weekend.
Perhaps it has been the shock news that Bafana Bafana captain Lucas Radebe can no longer tolerate the pressures of the club-versus-country saga and is reluctantly ready to hand over the baton of leadership. Perhaps it has been the hype surrounding the visit of Fifa president Sepp Blatter, with World Cup 2010 presumably high on the agenda when he meets South African Football Association bigwigs.
Perhaps it has been the decision to stage the qualifier against Burkina Faso in Rustenburg, but am I alone in believing there is a lack of excitement about this match? I do hope I am wrong. One suspects national coach Carlos Queiroz is not complaining, though, because many members of the Fourth Estate who swarm usually around him like locusts during training sessions in Johannesburg are absent this week.
Queiroz also has a lot on his mind. His primary task, of course, is to collect the three points on Saturday afternoon (please note the match kicks off at 4pm to try and lessen heat-induced discomfort). He also needs a good performance from his team as the honeymoon with the public and the media is clearly over after disappointing displays against Liberia and Mauritius.
Queiroz has deflected criticism by saying that winning at home and drawing away is the recipe for success and that it is much better to play badly and win than to play well and lose. Still, one expected more, particularly against Mauritius, who would probably struggle to defeat most Castle Premiership clubs and lost their previous home match against modest Congo.
The Maputo-born coach with an impressive CV spanning several continents often talks about “fantasy”, about the need for midfielders in the mould of Doctor Khumalo. Without dreadlocked Orlando Pirates talisman Thabo Mngomeni, South Africa have been a sorry sight in recent matches with a modicum of invention and an awful lot of mediocrity.
I keep hearing Premiership coaches talking about all the wonderful midfielders in this country. Gentlemen, kindly name them because what I witness most weekends is a lot of fight but very little finesse. Burkina Faso are no pushovers, gradually climbed the rankings to be 12th last month behind South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Cameroon, Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Angola, Ghana and Zimbabwe.
They do not travel well, however, winning away just once in nine World Cup qualifiers, and that was against minnows Mauritania in the eliminators for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. But even the most suspect travellers have the odd good day and in midfielder Mamadou Zongo and striker Oumar Barro they have young players capable of troubling Bafana Bafana.
Zongo was playing senior club football at 15, won his first senior cap at 16, joined famous Abidjan club Asec at 17 and is now a regular with Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem at 20. Although operating in midfield, Zongo is quick to seize attacking opportunities and has claimed four of the 11 goals scored by the Etalons (Stallions) in their previous 10 matches.
Barro is no stranger to South Africans, having made occasional appearances for Sundowns a couple of seasons ago before a lack of first-team opportunities led him to Danish side Brondby. As Radebe prepares for probably his swansong in Bafana Bafana colours, he is likely to have Cyril Nzama, Pierre Issa and Bradley Carnell as defensive partners.
Should Andre Arendse be declared unfit, Brian Baloyi will take over as goalkeeper, and I would like to see Sibusiso Zuma, Godfrey Sapula and Delron Buckley start in midfield. With such a paucity of midfielders, perhaps Queiroz will consider three strikers, and my preference would be for Bradley August, Shaun Bartlett and Siyabonga Nomvete.