A poll conducted by Kickoff magazine on Monday revealed that most fans rated Bafana Bafana’s performance in the 2-1 Nelson Mandela Challenge game against Norway at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on Saturday as ”good but not great”.
An overwhelming 66,3% of those who voted considered Bafana’s display as no more than ”good”.
Only 24% considered the team had played brilliantly against the inept, ultra-negative Norwegians and 9,6% rated South Africa poor.
Although Bafana’s victory was the product of a sensational 92nd-minute goal from substitute Simphiwe Tshabalala, it followed a horrenduous defensive error in which an unchallenged Norwegian defender surrendered possession by falling over his own feet.
Norway, who are placed bottom in their World Cup qualifying group behind The Netherlands, Iceland, Scotland and Macedonia and, thankfully, have little chance of returning to South Africa next year, have long had the reputation of being one of the most negative teams among Fifa’s 207-member nations.
And they lived up to this notorious reputation with a performance almost entirely devoid of inspiration and initiative, with the only mitigating factors for the staid Scandanavians that they arrived in South Africa little more than 24 hours before the Rustenburg kick-off and found the oppressive heat hardly to their liking.
Bafana are sure to face a more revealing test for the Confederation Cup tournament in June in the friendly encounter against Portugal in Lausanne on Tuesday night.
The star-studded Portuguese are also precariously placed in their World Cup qualifying campaign, having done their prospects no good at all by the goalless home draw against Sweden on Saturday.
But this might only be a motivating factor to unleash their wrath and talent on a blaise Bafana who are predictably placing too much value on the victory over the numbed Norweigian.
Portugal and former Bafana coach Carlos Queiroz has promised a number of experiments and changes from his supposedly ”strongest” line-up against Sweden, but he was non-commital who would be left out and whether ”World Footballer of the Year” Cristiano Ronaldo would be rested. — Sapa