Down on two occasions in a protracted, vacillating penalty shoot-out, a youthful Bafana Bafana team won 5-4 on penalties after a goalless and sparsely attended Cosafa Cup game against Malawi at the Somhlolo Stadium in Mbabane on Saturday afternoon.
The ultimate hero of a game that aroused little of the atmosphere associated with an international encounter was goalkeeper and captain-of-the-day Moeneeb Josephs, who saved two of Malawi’s three missed penalties and lived up to his nickname of ”Slim Kat” by employing a fair amount of chirping to unnerve the opposing kickers.
What was effectively a Bafana ”B” line-up avoided the ignominy of an opening-game elimination from the competition and qualified for a second-round game at the same venue on Sunday.
But while the game was more or less even, Bafana missed two golden opportunities of securing a victory during the scheduled 90 minutes of play when first Bennet Chenene and then Teko Modise squandered gift, point-blank opportunities early in the second period.
And while gallant Malawian goalkeeper Simeon Kapuza deserves full credit for his two instinctive saves, the Bafana players concerned had no right to miss chances that were easier than those from the penalty kicks.
”What I enjoyed most about my players,” said Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira afterwards, ”was their willingness to play and give a whole-hearted performance.”
And, to be fair, it was a case of both teams being willing throughout, but often not being able to turn good intentions into successful practical endeavours.
Malawi, with several Premier Soccer League players in their ranks, had 11 corner kicks against Bafana’s two, but, for all this, rarely looked like scoring.
The bone-hard, uneven state of the pitch, however, was not conducive to precise football and Parreira pointed out this did not make it easier for players with limited international experience.
Cosafa officials claimed before the game that the pitch had undergone a week’s intensive preparation before Saturday’s two-game programme, which, if accurate, boggled the imagination about how bad the facilities must have been seven days ago.
Several of the Bafana defenders made impressive international debuts, with Moroka Swallows centre-back Bevan Fransman notable among them — and Papi Zothwane was a cunning, accomplished influence in midfield. But once again Bafana’s finishing was no more than lamentable.
The penalty shoot-out was a tense, topsy-turvy affair, with Parreira accurately surmising that ”anything could have happened at this point”.
Malawi took an early lead when Masilo Modibe ballooned Bafana’s second kick over the crossbar, but Malawi squandered their advantage by failing to score from three of their last five kicks.
Chenene, who had failed to capitalise on his gift scoring opportunity earlier, also had a tame penalty kick saved by Kapuza.
And no one must have been happier about Josephs’s heroics finally saving the day than the Orlando Pirates player. — Sapa