Regaining his rightful place as Bafana Bafana captain, Aaron Mokoena was appropriately the instrument whereby South African soccer regained its pride at a packed Independence Stadium in Lusaka on Sunday afternoon.
The burly defender forged upfield for a free-kick from Delron Buckley and scored the only goal of the African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia with a precise,
composed and professionally-calculated header.
Both sides came tantalisingly close to scoring on numerous other occasions, with valiant Bafana goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez emerging alongside Mokoena as the heroes of the game — with Kennedy Muweene in the Zambia goal not far behind.
The irony of Chipolopolo’s setback for the 30 000 crowd was that former Kaizer Chiefs striker, Collins Mbesuma, so often the scourge of South African defenders at club level, was the culprit when it came to missing gilt-edged scoring opportunities.
In Mbesuma’s defence, however, was the fact that he played throughout with his lethal left leg heavily bandaged — although this was hardly an excuse for squandering three headed opportunities.
The victory resurrects South Africa’s prospects of qualifying for the 2008 tournament after a dismal goalless draw at home in the first qualifying game against Congo Brazzaville at FNB Stadium.
And for the first time in more than a year Bafana played with a measure of pride, composure and grim determination, closing down the Zambians when they gained possession while neutralising their vaunted firepower.
Chris Katongo, the top PSL scorer with Jomo Cosmos this season, was largely an invisible figure throughout and probably fell into the trap of expecting goals to come too easily — a failing that was shared by most of the casual Zambians in the early stages.
But Mokoena’s goal turned the course of the game and the stunned Zambians needed almost an hour to recover. South African-based James Chamanga almost equalised with a header that struck the post and Mbesuma’s snap shot in the 87th minute was saved from point-blank range by Fernandez. – Spa