Bafana Bafana arrived in Pointe Noire for Sunday’s key African Nations Cup qualifier against Congo and soon a storm of discontent had enveloped the South African camp. Coach Carlos Albert Parreira was fuming over the failure of the Congolese to provide his players with the kind of ball that will be used in Sunday’s game.
Boosted by one of his best performances for South Africa in the recent 4-0 African Nations Cup qualifying win over Chad, Belgium-based Elrio van Heerden has learnt that fate has a habit of dealing out the wrong cards at the most inopportune moment.
With a contract in his back pocket that was ”simply too good to refuse”, 42 year-old Roger de Sa rejoined Wits University on Tuesday after two years as coach of Cape Town PSL club Santos. De Sa’s return to the club where he spent eight years as a goalkeeper and coach was announced by Bidvest boss Brian Joffe.
When it comes to money, Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira clearly thinks in big figures. But after Parreira had criticised the South African Football Association for balking over meeting Uruguay’s pay demands for a friendly game against Bafana, the national association countered with an equally firm, if veiled, rebuke.
It could hardly have been a more harrowing Monday for Bafana Bafana as Godfrey Sapula dropped out of the squad to play Chad in an African Nations Cup qualifier on Saturday — and the prodigal Benni McCarthy was a conspicuous absentee from the training camp in Durban.
With goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs tested by little more than back passes from his defenders, South Africa strolled into the Cosafa Cup semifinals with a 2-0 win over Mauritius at a sleepy Somhlolo Stadium in Swaziland on Sunday afternoon. However, it took the youthful Bafana Bafana combination 42 minutes to assert themselves.
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 the game was goalkeeper and captain-of-the-day Moeneeb Josephs.
While the South African Football Association continued to fiddle over the hot-potato issue of Benni McCarthy, Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira threw down the gauntlet and selected him for the African Nations Cup qualifier against Chad on June 2. ”My job is to select the strongest possible Bafana squad,” said the forthright former Brazil World Cup coach.
Even in the precarious business of soccer coaching, the PSL underwent a whirlwind of changes on Tuesday to match the gusty conditions blowing through much of South Africa. Foremost in causing a flurry was the departure of 42-year-old Gavin Hunt from Moroka Swallows after more than four reasonably successful seasons to replace Bafana Bafana-bound Pitso Mosimane at SuperSport United.
Illness-plagued Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has ruled out Orlando Pirates striker Lebohang Mokoena and Santos midfielder Erwin Isaacs from the South African squad for Cosafa Cup games this weekend — but he remained undecided on Monday whether he would make the trip to Swaziland himself.