The Stallions of Burkina Faso left Bafana Bafana flat-footed at the starting post at the National Stadium in Ouagadougou on Saturday night and inflicted a 3-1 defeat on their bemused opponents, which has all but ruled South Africa out of qualifying for next year’s World Cup finals in Germany.
And if Ghana now beat Uganda in another group B qualifying game on Sunday evening — and they are firm favourites to do so on home turf — the final nails in Bafana’s World Cup coffin will be hammered home with irreversible effect.
Millions of stunned South Africans watched the grim tidings on television in shocked disbelief, but there was no doubting the superiority of the team who bear the nickname of a pedigreed racehorse and performed accordingly against a Bafana side who found themselves trailing 3-0 after 47 minutes and might easily have lost by a bigger margin than the final score line.
The redeeming feature of Bafana’s disjointed performance was that they did not lie down meekly after the prospect of winning had become a forlorn hope — and displayed greater resolution and purpose in the final 30 minutes than at any stage of the game.
Bafana recorded a consolation goal of sorts in the 74th minute when second-half substitute Sibusiso Zuma side-footed the ball into the net from close range after Steven Pienaar’s pass had split the Burkina Faso defence.
But, in truth, it was all too little and much too late as Burkina Faso ”closed shop” and concentrated on holding on to their advantage.
The ignominy of Bafana’s plight is that they are now not certain to make next year’s African Nations Cup tournament either — with qualification reserved for the three top teams in each of five groups.
And the writing for the wall for the outplayed South Africans was evident from the outset, with Burkina Faso close to scoring on three occasions before bewildering French-based striker Abdoulaya Cisse side-footed the ball into the net through a packed goal mouth in the 32nd minute.
Fellow Burkina Faso striker Yaya Kebe displayed masterly composure when he chipped the ball into the net for their second goal in the 38th minute, with Cisse scoring his second goal from the penalty spot two minutes after half-time after he had been upended by Mbulelo Mabizela.
Bafana showed signs of improvement after Ricardo Katza, Lucky Lekgwathi and Zuma had replaced Thabiso Rammile, Siyabonga Nomvete and an injured Nasief Morris for the second half.
But a distraught Stuart Baxter was not wrong after the game when he declared ”unfortunately some of the players were simply not able to rise to this very important occasion — and that’s something we simply have to stomach”. — Sapa