A sudden wind of confidence blowing through the Bafana Bafana camp makes a transformation from chumps to champs increasingly possible.
South Africa’s national side go into Friday’s opening match of the World Cup against Mexico at Soccer City alive with a hope that some six months ago did not exist.
While coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has warned in recent days that the team has achieved nothing yet, a run of 12 unbeaten games in pre-tournament warm-ups speaks of a dramatic transformation.
With the rare taste of victory has also come a sudden, and overwhelming, burst of patriotic fervour, reflected all across the country. While this unusual passion might rest too heavily on the shoulders of the relatively young South African side, they seem rather to have found further motivation from its growing intensity — even to the extent of revelling in all the attention, which is understandable after years of being considered a laughing stock and the butt of endless jokes.
Bafana will not be the first host nation to overcome years of mediocrity and surpass expectations at the World Cup. The Germans were in a similar situation four years ago and ended up finishing third, riding a tidal wave of nationalistic sentiment.
There is little chance of South Africa going that far, but there is much more hope that they will at least avoid the spectre of becoming the first host nation not to make it past the first round. Six months ago the prospect of Mexico, Uruguay and France in the opening round served to write off their chances.
Now the talk is not of whether the home side might be able to pick up a face-saving point here and there, but rather whether they can finish first in the group. This confidence emanates primarily from the players, who have, over a week of interviews, expressed a high level of genuine confidence in their ability to win on Friday and go on to reach the knockout stage.
Circumspect
Parreira has been circumspect. After seven previous World Cups he errs on the side of caution. But he does feel the side has peaked perfectly. “Our decision to prepare the way we have with the training camps looks to have been proved correct.”
His side are supremely fit, many players having lost 5kg or more in body weight over the three months of intensive physical training. They are moving the ball around with much more accuracy, playing at a high tempo and even learning to find the back of the net, for so long the downfall of South African football.
There has been a settled satisfaction about Parreira’s sleep this week, not as many waking hours as previously, pondering over the complexities of his team selection. The winning run has affirmed for the Brazilian the line-up he will use on Friday afternoon in the opening match of the World Cup against Mexico at Soccer City.
There is really only a single position to ponder, at left-back where Tsepo Masilela’s place is under threat from nuggety Orlando Pirates’ utility defender Lucas Thwala. Masilela is patently the classier player, but a spate of niggling injuries has seen him repeatedly fail to finish training and kept him out of the last two warm-up games.
It is perhaps the product of a long tiring season with Maccabi Haifa, who lost the Israeli league title in a dramatic post-season play-off series and who, late last year, were embroiled in the cut and thrust of Uefa Champions League action against the likes of Bayern Munich and Juventus.
Thwala did well against both Guatemala and Denmark, showing attacking prowess in the first and good defensive cover in the second game. Mexico will be an attacking side, testing the decision-making of centre backs Aaron Mokoena and Bongani Khumalo.
Potent strike force
In Carlos Vela of Arsenal and Manchester United-bound Javier Hernández, El Tri have a potent strike force. As they showed in the 2-1 victory over defending champions Italy in their last friendly match, this is a world-class side. That is not to say they cannot be beaten. Mexico’s defensive frailties are what Bafana will need to capitalise on. They are slow in defence and in recent friendlies against England (lost 1-3) and Netherlands (lost 1-2) showed a surprising lack of acumen at the back.
There are certainly gaps for South Africa to exploit, but enough quality to be cautious of too. Barcelona star Rafael Márquez is a reminder of the quality of this side.
The opening game has the potential to be a real cut-and-thrust game, a far cry from ponderous and cautious opening matches at previous World Cups.