An embarrassing own-goal for Safa

South Africa’s once-hopeful African Cup of Nations crusade is looking like a lost cause.

A cause so lost even the most optimistic Bafana Bafana supporter couldn’t trace it. Think needle and haystack. Metal detector on the blink. Very big haystack. Most of the needle stuck in the coach’s back. That’s how bad things are.

Memo to the South African Football Association (Safa): What a great time to suspend, sack and get involved in a court wrangle with Ephraim Mashaba. Just before a major tournament. Perfect.

And these are the guys bidding to host the first African-based World Cup. Mashaba’s nickname, Shakes, applies nicely. The whole country has got the shakes and Mashaba finds himself out of a job.

The Rainbow Nation is getting a reputation. South Africa’s cricketers couldn’t get to the Super Six stage of their home World Cup last February. The Springboks, when they had their clothes on, were lucky to get to the quarterfinals of their event, where they were destroyed by New Zealand.

Now, in a tournament so gloriously won in 1996, South African soccer is ready to join the lemming-like rush to oblivion. Next thing you know, we’ll find out Safa had their own Operation Staaldraad.

Nobody’s saying Mashaba is Africa’s Alex Ferguson. And his handling of the overseas players has been far from perfect. But Safa officials acted too late to call on the players Shakes shook up in his shake-up. Manchester United’s Quinton Fortune and Charlton Athletic’s Mark Fish remain in limbo, Ajax’s super Steve Pienaar is nowhere to be found. Shaun Bartlett and Lucas Radebe (have you noticed Leeds’ results since his injury?) have retired. Woe, woe and more woe.

And Spurs fullback Mbulelo Mabizela, the nation’s youngest captain, compounded it all by scoring a morale-muddling own goal in the friendly against Senegal last week.

Ouch. Five minutes from time, 1-1, and along comes Mabizela’s beautifully bobbled bloomer. He spent a good minute on the floor lamenting his fate. Cheer up mate, own goals are character building.

Caretaker manager April ‘Styles” Phumo’s early games have lacked a certain something: success is the word we’re looking for. Mind you, they didn’t do that badly against Liverpool’s El Hadji Diouf and his big-earning, French-frilled teammates at Stade Leopold Sedar Senghor in Dakar.

Udinese’s former Kaizer Chiefs striker Siyabonga Nomvete thumped in a lovely opener for the Boys after 15 minutes, but World Cup veteran Papa Malick Diop levelled to set the 60 000 Senegal fans alight.

Not literally of course. But they were feeling pretty hot about their side’s chances. Senegal dominated for most of the match as South Africa’s alarming shortcomings were exposed.

At 38, Chiefs veteran John ‘Shoes” Moshoeu struggled at the centre of the park, Le Mans defender Thabang Molefe was torn apart by African Player of the Year Diouf and Moscow-based maestro Jacob Lekgetho gave away free kick after free kick.

Andre Arendse did well in goal until he was lobbed by his captain five minutes from time, but Nomvete apart, the positives are hard to find.

I can’t see South Africa, who should be among the favourites, doing better than the first-time minnows in Tunisia: Serbian coach Ratomir Djukovic’s Belgian-based Rwandans, the veteran Ndlovu brothers, Adam and Peter’s Zimbabwe, and Benin, with their Nigerian-born giants Muri Ogunbiyi and Jonas Oketola.

A faltering Phumo, also in charge for the embarrassing 2-0 defeat in not-so-mighty Mauritius feels just about the same way, judging from these worrying words: ‘We’ll just have to work on our fitness levels and shuffle some players around.”

And the key quote: ‘It’s clear we’re not ready yet. We’ll see what we can do to turn things around before our first big game.”

That first big game is against Benin. What once would have been considered a pushover is likely to be remembered as Phumo’s folly. Nigeria and Morocco lie in wait for Bafana Bafana. Don’t hold your breath.

The players are feeling no better about the current state of affairs. Moshoeu, who played in the 1996 winning team, admits: ‘There is a lot of uncertainty and it has affected us, it’s no good denying it. We have to bond together through this difficult period.”

As always in such events, the hosts are among the favourites. Tunisia open against Rwanda on Saturday. But the real giants are Nigeria, who play Morocco on Tuesday, World Cup sensations Senegal, who face Algeria on Sunday, and Cameroon against Zimbabwe on Thursday.

Of course, European club managers dismiss all this as a sideshow. Mali’s French under-21 international Fredi Kanoute has been damned by Spurs boss David Pleat for daring to play for the land of his ancestors; Arsenal’s Nwankwo Kanu and Bolton’s Jay-Jay Okocha were banned from joining Nigeria’s training camp.

A word to the wise lads: the African Cup of Nations (1957) is older than the European championships (1960).