Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter is able to take a six-month breather from his team’s 2006 World Cup Group 2 qualifying campaign in the secure knowledge that his side top the standings at the halfway mark.
Bafana head Group 2 after scoring a heart-stopping 1-0 win over Uganda in Kampala on Sunday. South Africa have nine points after five matches. Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo have eight, followed by Cape Verde (seven), Burkina Faso (six) and Uganda (four).
The qualifying programme resumes next Match when Bafana host Uganda in the return leg.
Baxter was all smiles at a media briefing on Monday at home after becoming the first team in the six-team group to notch an away win.
”It is not all plain sailing,” warned Baxter. ”The next five games, of which we have three at home, will not be easy.”
But the Bafana coach said that despite the fact that his side are still struggling to score goals, he was happy with the team’s overall performance against Uganda.
”We need to sort out our finishing. I was pleased with our defence but we can still get better. But having said that, we have shown improvement since our first away match against Ghana in Kumasi where we were thumped 3-0. That was the low point of the qualifying campaign so far,” said Baxter.
He added that he had given his team a dismal four out of 10 for what he described as a ”miserable performance” against Ghana. But he rated Sunday’s display as worth 6,5 out of 10.
”We are still not the finished article … but we are getting there. I am confident we will achieve our goal of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
”There is a massive amount of work ahead before we complete this qualifying group next October. But there are encouraging signs,” said Baxter.
The coach also defended the disappointing performances by some of his European-based players such as midfielders Quinton Fortune of Manchester United and Ajax Amsterdam’s Steven Pienaar.
”The problem of playing on the road in Africa is the poor quality of the pitches. To be fair to the European-based players, they are used to good pitches wherever they play and they battle to adapt to conditions when we play away in Africa.
”But I have told them they must adapt.”
Baxter was happy with his new leftwing back, Mamelodi Sundowns’ 20-year-old Thabiso Rammile, who has come from playing in the Premier Soccer League First Division last season to a fully-fledged senior international.
”I thought Rammile more than held his own. It was a tough debut, but he handled it well,” said Baxter.
Baxter will keep his squad busy over the next few months. Bafana play Nigeria in the annual Nelson Mandela Challenge next month. The date and venue will be announced shortly.
South Africa will host the international four-team LG Cup at the end of February and beginning of March. — Sapa