Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has talked tough ever since fielding his first media conference as the national coach.
He shot from the lip, saying that he would quit on the first occasion he thought the bigwigs at the South African Football Association were not playing ball.
Then he lambasted the association for not having an under-20 league. It did not seem to matter that there was an under-19 league.
Last week an extremely experimental side, made up largely of players who had hitherto never worn the national first-team colours, played to a one-all draw with neighbours Swaziland.
He found some positives there, but bemoaned other persistent shortcomings of the local game, such as the desire to pass backwards and the knack of not finishing goal-scoring chances.
However heartened he may be, he will hope for a much more polished performance from the more experienced side he has chosen for the journey up north, where Bafana take on Chad in an African Cup of Nations qualifier on Saturday.
This weekend Parreira starts in earnest the job for which he is paid almost R2-million a month: restoring South Africa’s place among the continent’s football powerhouses. This quest will manifest itself in the encounter with Chad.
Had football playing fields been even, the match in Ndjamena on the western border of the country that calls Libya, Cameroon and Sudan neighbours, should allow Parreira to ease into his job.
But then on this continent the literal and figurative fields are seldom level. Chad are ranked 135 in the world, 15 places lower than South Africa’s last opponents, Swaziland. On that score alone, South Africa, who dropped a place to 60 when the latest rankings were announced, should be too strong for Chad.
But football, as we are so often reminded, is played on pitches and not in the statistician’s office. And that is where Chad ought to feel a justified sense of optimism.
The fields in the country are reportedly of such poor standards that prospects of a flowing game have long been abandoned. Neither are there expectations of a display of silky skills.
And, without the self-exiled Benni McCarthy, Bafana are without a reliable goal-getter in the ilk of Samuel Eto’o for Cameroon or Ivorian Didier Drogba.
In fact, Bafana, if honest, will admit that they are bereft of a truly great international star. Sibusiso Zuma and Aaron Mokoena come close, but they are not there yet.
All this provides multiple World Cup-winner Parreira with an opportunity to showcase his abilities as an organiser, strategist and motivator.
It is often said that any player who needs motivation when playing for his country is in the wrong place.
But a series of humiliations, such as leaving the last Africa Cup of Nations losing all matches without having scored a goal, should work on the psyche of the most staunch of patriots.
Parreira’s record speaks for itself. And for that reason the South African media have been rather reluctant to offer him advice as they are wont to do.
But after Saturday, he can expect that his relationship with the South African football public will never be the same again.