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/ 2 September 2006
Seven years ago when the South African Football Association (Safa) first flirted with the idea of acquiring the services of Carlos Alberto Parreira, the renowned Brazilian coach was delayed by custom officials at Johannesburg International airport for somewhere between an hour and 90 minutes. ”No problems this time,” he said on Friday.
Pitso Mosimane on Wednesday sent midfielder Macbeth Sibaya ”home to Natal” following the death of his father on Monday — and the Bafana Bafana coach may, in the process, have lost his Russian-based midfielder for the African Nations Cup qualifying game against the Congo at FNB Stadium on Saturday.
It could not have worked out more perfectly for the Premier Soccer League and the sponsors had the SAA Supa8 semifinal draw been calculated by an intricate computer programme than the more standard method on Monday. The outcome produced not one juicy derby but two, with Kaizer Chiefs up against Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns facing SuperSport United.
No one seemed happy with the outcome as Kaizer Chiefs drew 2-2 with old nemesis SuperSport United in their opening Premier League game of the season at Loftus on Sunday afternoon. The respective coaches, Ernst Middendorp of Chiefs and Pitso Mosimane of SuperSport, were at each other’s throats like a couple of rottweilers after a tense, turbulent game.
Quinton Fortune, the not-so-young enfant terrible of South African soccer, is still in caretaker coach Pitso Mosimane’s plans for the key African Nations Cup qualifying game against the Democratic Republic of Congo at FNB Stadium next Saturday. ”I will select him for the Congo game if I feel he warrants a place in the squad,” said Mosimane.
A Moroka Swallows team with a new, improved plumage provided fair warning to the more fancied teams remaining in the competition when they swooped into the SAA Supa8 semifinals at Germiston’s Herman Immelman Stadium on Sunday afternoon with a workmanlike 2-1 win over Silver Stars.
A bemused and bewildered Orlando Pirates were snatched from the jaws of victory in a bizarre Supa8 quarterfinal at Loftus on Saturday night. Supersport United secured victory by a 6-5 margin in the penalty shoot-out after the teams had finished level 1-1 after extra time. A 10-man Pirates appeared to have secured victory in the 119th minute.
When it comes to handing out appointments as acting Bafana Bafana coach to Pitso Mosimane, the South African Football Association (Safa) is taking a miserly, scrooge-like approach towards the man who is also at the helm of the Premier Soccer League’s Supersport United.
On a day when their Fifa ranking plummeted to a disturbing 76th in the world, Bafana Bafana hardly enhanced a diminishing reputation on Wednesday night with a scrappy, scrambled 1-0 victory over 137th-ranked Namibia at the Sam Nujoma Stadium on the outskirts of Windhoek.
An astute betting man would have had his money firmly on Monday’s chances of Bafana Bafana stars Benni McCarthy, Quinton Fortune and Macbeth Sibaya materialising from the very outset. McCarthy, Fortune and Sibaya have all pulled out of the South African squad for the friendly international against Namibia.