There was nothing to get excited about as Bafana Bafana laboured to an unconvincing 1-0 win over Madagascar in a friendly international played at the GWK Stadium in Kimberley on Saturday.
The victory ends Bafana’s six match losing streak but will not give coach Joel Santana any peaceful sleep in the future as he works towards building a competitive side to compete at the Soccer World Cup finals on home soil next June.
Madagascar were the victims of two poor refereeing decisions. They had a penalty awarded against them which was saved by goalkeeper Hector Kandy penalty and then had a goal seven minutes from time ruled out for a foul inside the Bafana penalty area.
The fact that Madagascar have not played a competitive match in nearly a year brings the result into perspective.
Santana said he was happy with the result.
”We played well in the first half but made a lot of mistakes. We put Madagascar under pressure in the second half and dominated the game from the start.”
The only highlight was substitute Katlego Mphela’s 64th minute strike after the Mamelodi Sundowns forward latched on to a clever through ball from man of the match Richard Henyekane — who had an otherwise unimpressive performance — for a goal that saved Bafana and Santana’s blushes.
The match was intended to build morale in the Bafana squad after six successive defeats and the South Africans should have made mincemeat out of their inexperienced opponents, ranked 131st in
the Fifa world rankings. Bafana are rated 73rd.
There was little urgency among the South African players and they appeared to lack ideas, especially in front of goal.
Strikers Henyekane and Mabhuti Khenyeza failed to trouble the visitors’ defence, but they got little support.
The home side could not even take advantage of a penalty gifted to them by Botswana referee Joshua Bondo, who pointed to the penalty spot in the 42nd minute when he adjudged that Henyekane was brought down by Kandy inside the penalty area.
Television replays showed that Bondo got it wrong and that the contact between Kandy and the striker was made outside the area.
Kandy did well to save Siphiwe Tshabalala’s spot kick — the Kaizer Chiefs star’s second miss in three penalty attempts this season.
After the break Mphela made a difference and Bafana started to show some urgency which was rewarded when the striker netted his eighth international goal to spare his side’s blushes. – Sapa