It was enough to make sane men turn from atheism. With an entire nation apparently taking their vuvuzelas to churches and temples this week and prayer meetings around the country, the halftime score at Bafana Bafana’s must-thrash match against France in Bloemfontein on Tuesday evening would have left several non-believers questioning their rationality.
At halftime, a fiery Bafana Bafana were 2-0 up against a 10-man France team — after the sending off of Yoann Gourcuff in the 25th minute after a foul on MacBeth Sibaya — and Uruguay were leading Mexico 1-0 at Rustenburg’s Royal Bafokeng Stadium, lending belief that miracles do indeed happen.
And it could happen — again — to the World Cup’s host country after perhaps slightly more profound miracles like a bloodless transition from apartheid to democracy.
There was belief that, with things going South Africa’s way in Rustenburg, Bafana could overhaul the five-goal-difference deficit needed — with two more goals in the second half — to qualify from Group A for the knock-out stages of the World Cup.
The crowd at the Free State Stadium raised the decibel levels to deafening proportions; they sang Shosholoza and they made vuvuzelas screech, rather than bay.
This while Bafana dominated a bedraggled French team (which started with five changes from the last match), disillusioned by their manager and internal squabbles that had seen Nicolas Anelka sent home and captain Patrice Evra dropped to the bench for leading an insurrection.
Bafana created a flurry of chances, but, ultimately, it was not to be. While this was a match of several historic firsts — South Africa’s first win in a World Cup, the nation’s first win against France and coach Carlos Alberto Parreira’s first World Cup win with any other side apart from Brazil — Bafana eventually ran out 2-1 winners. Level on points with Mexico after their 1-0 loss to Uruguay, they did not proceed from Group A into the knock-out phase of the competition — becoming the first hosts to do so — because of an inferior goal difference.
‘There was a stage when we thought a miracle would happen’
South African President Jacob Zuma was the first to tell the boys to keep their chins up when he visited the change room after the match: “I told the boys that they have done the people of this country proud — Yes there was a stage when we thought a miracle would happen — they did us very proud,” said Zuma.
Zuma also dismissed suggestions that local enthusiasm for the tournament would wane with Bafana’s exit: “We will support the other African teams, and if there are no African teams, then we will support the countries of the South — Brazil and Argentina,” said Zuma.
“Our people are saying that the cup must stay in the South,” added the president.
Captain Aaron Mokoena said he had “mixed feelings” about the historic win: “Yes we were all disappointed, but it’s mixed feelings; we wanted to go through very, very badly, and we gave a fantastic performance today [Tuesday] that would have allowed us to go through, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. So for us now, we’re just going to take lessons out of this and move on from it.”
Fellow centreback Bongani Khumalo, who opened the scoring with a thundering header from a Siphiwe Tshabalala corner in the 20th minute — in what looked like one of Bafana’s slickly practised set pieces practiced in training — said: “It’s a bittersweet moment, we really had a good chance to win it, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Of the team’s overall performance, Khumalo said: “We got four points, which is respectable.”
Khumalo told the Mail & Guardian about Parreira’s halftime message: “He just mentioned that we should remain calm and not rush when we were going forward. Just play patiently and go forward.”
On the fact that Mexico were 1-0 down at the time, Khumalo said: “That was never mentioned, we just focused on our task.”
Midfielder Tshabalala, another Bafana warrior who had a storming game, including what appeared to be an attempt to cover every blade of grass by running 11km during the match, said: “Ja, [the win] was not enough and its is very hard, because we gave it our best and we tried everything and I think we were unfortunate to have not scored more than three goals, but I am happy that we finished on a high.”
Added Shabba on Parreira’s parting word to the team as he returns to Brazil: “The coach was very happy for us, the way that we played and he was very proud of us.”
Warriors to the end
Local organising committee chairperson Danny Jordaan said: “Yes [Bafana] did not make it past the group stage but they did what the country asked of them — they played with pride, passion, skill and commitment, they gave their best. They did the national team jersey and every single South African proud and we want to thank them for what they’ve done for this country.”
And they did, every player was a warrior to the end as they harassed the French, swept forward with focus and penetration whenever attacking, and came agonisingly close on several occasions.
Sibaya, returned to the starting XI, was monumental in the tackle, breaking down the French attack at crucial points. Khumalo was calm, assured and unbreakable in defence. Man-of the-match Mphela, who scored Bafana’s second goal, tormented the French defence with his speed and willingness to shoot. Steven Pienaar was industrious and creative in midfield while Tshabalala was tireless — and so the list goes on and on.
Bafana Bafana may have exited the World Cup, but they will not exit the hearts of the this nation for a while — they played with pride, fought with honour and it was all that South Africa had asked of them: from the callers on radio stations still dreaming of a miracle, to the old women who lined the N1 between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein on Tuesday with flags and messages of goodwill.