Now is the time for budding Bafana Bafana stars to stand up and be counted as South Africa take on Nigeria in a tough 2010 African Nations Cup qualifier in Abuja on Sunday. Kick-off is at 5pm South African time. There is no Benni McCarthy, and three midfield aces in Teko Modise, Delron Buckley and Lerato Chabangu are all nursing an assortment of injuries.
New Bafana Bafana coach Joel Santana passed his first test in charge of the national squad when he put his foot down and decided to withdraw troublesome striker Benni McCarthy from next month’s four 2010 African Nations Cup qualifying matches. Santana and his technical team met with the temperamental Blackburn Rovers striker on Wednesday afternoon.
Veteran Bafana Bafana midfield hard man Macbeth Sibaya has a simple plan for beating Nigeria when the two enemies meet in a crunch 2010 African Nations Cup group four qualifier in Abuja on Sunday. The Russia-based midfield destroyer says the formula for victory over the Super Eagles is to stick to new coach Joel Santana’s game plan.
Bafana Bafana’s hard-tackling midfielder, Lance Davids, will not be star-struck when he lines up against Nigeria in what could be the biggest match of his career in Abuja on Sunday. Kick-off is at 5pm South African time. The 23-year-old Cape Town-born Davids is one of the promising stars who local fans are hoping will set the 2010 World Cup finals alight.
Bafana Bafana’s technical and communications staff were seemingly in a tizzy on Monday after confirmation that Benson Mhlongo had smashed his ankle and petulant Benni McCarthy had broken his word to arrive at the training camp on Monday prior to Sunday’s crucial African Nations qualifier against Nigeria.
Mpumalanga Black Aces coach Kenny Ndlazi, who will lead his side to the Nedbank Cup final on Saturday at the Johannesburg Stadium, has at least one attribute nobody can take away. He is the only South African coach to occupy the bench when a South African national team beat their Brazilian counterparts.
In the samba spirit that the South African Football Association seems to have been seized by, and to welcome Joel Santana, the Brazilian coach, South Africans now have an opportunity to convert their names to Brazilian ones. After all, one Brazilian turn deserves another.
Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club on Saturday announced that, effective from June 1, Nike South Africa will be the official technical sponsor of the club for a period of four years. Nike partners with the world’s most successful players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Wayne Rooney as well as Benni McCarthy and Aaron Mokoena.
South Africa international striker Benni McCarthy has agreed a new three-year contract with Blackburn, Rovers manager Mark Hughes confirmed on Friday. The 30-year-old former Porto star, who has scored 11 goals this term, has now committed until the end of the 2010/11 season.
Bafana Bafana desperately need to uncover a new striker ahead of next year’s Confederations Cup. That was the opinion expressed on Wednesday by the CEO of the 2010 local organising committee , Danny Jordaan. While Jordaan is happy with the progress that coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is making, he is concerned by the fact that there is no successor to Benni McCarthy.
Benni McCarthy created a record and South Africa equalled one as they outclassed Paraguay 3-0 in a lively international friendly on Wednesday. Blackburn Rovers striker McCarthy headed the crucial second goal two minutes after half-time at Super Stadium near Pretoria to overtake retired Shaun Bartlett and become the leading national team scorer with 30 goals.
Seldom has a friendly international meant so much to 2010 Soccer World Cup hosts South Africa as that against Paraguay on Wednesday. Underperforming Bafana Bafana need a win to silence a growing band of critics, led by Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile, Parliament sports committee chairperson Butana Komphela and several top first-division coaches.
”Yo-yo man” Benni McCarthy is back in the Bafana Bafana squad to play Paraguay on March 26 — strengthening the suspicion that the enigmatic striker requested coach Carlos Albero Parreira not to include him in the squad for the recent African Nations Cup tournament in Ghana.
Benni McCarthy has moved to end speculation over his future by insisting that he is ready to remain with Premiership outfit Blackburn Rovers for the rest of his career. The South African striker has two years left to run on his current contract at Ewood Park, but has continually been linked with a move away from the club since his arrival in July 2006.
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/ 12 February 2008
Arsene Wenger has warned Manchester United that Arsenal won’t be affected by the pressure of leading from the front in the Premier League title race. Wenger’s side extended their advantage over United to five points with a 2-0 win over Blackburn on Monday and the French coach took encouragement from the way they once again handled a tricky situation.
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/ 8 February 2008
Although his new side failed to make it past round one at the Africa Cup of Nations, Carlos Alberto Parreira won’t be entirely depressed. Bafana’s performance at the tournament in Egypt in 2006 was marked by a medley of administrative foibles, disruptive player mutinies, pre-tournament shenanigans and sepulchral lethargy that showed on the field when they failed to score.
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/ 22 January 2008
Thousands of kilometres separate Tamale Stadium in northern Ghana from Old Trafford in England. But as Angola striker Mateus ”Manucho” Goncalves prepares for an Africa Cup of Nations Group D first-round showdown with South Africa on Wednesday, Manchester United will inevitably be on his mind.
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/ 15 January 2008
When world football supremo Sepp Blatter implored the South African national team to ”wake up” after poor results last year, he could not have been referring to Sibusiso Zuma. Only last weekend Zuma demonstrated again that he is razor sharp when it comes to putting the ball in the net.
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/ 14 January 2008
Jason Roberts’s last-minute winner secured a 2-1 win for Blackburn Rovers away to local rivals Bolton Wanderers as they battled back from going a goal down in dramatic fashion on Sunday. The Lancashire derby appeared destined for a draw when the striker burst clear from the halfway line and left several defenders behind him at the Reebok Stadium.
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/ 11 January 2008
South Africa head for Ghana desperate to arrest a slide in African Nations Cup fortunes. Since that amazing day in February 1996 when Nelson Mandela presented the trophy to Neil Tovey, Bafana Bafana have performed worse at each subsequent edition. A second-place finish behind Egypt in the next edition of the biennial tournament was followed by third place in 2000.
Manchester City added to the pressure on the shoulders of Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce with a 2-0 Premier League away win at St James’s Park on Wednesday that saw them leapfrog Liverpool into fourth place on the table. Defeat meant Newcastle had taken just one point from a possible 12.
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/ 6 December 2007
Blackburn manager Mark Hughes has hit back at suggestions that the Premiership club played a part in Benni McCarthy’s surprise omission from South Africa’s squad for next month’s African Cup of Nations. McCarthy (30) had looked set to be a certainty in Carlos Alberto Parreira’s plans for the tournament, which starts in Ghana on January 20.
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/ 30 November 2007
South Africa have ditched star striker Benni McCarthy for the 2008 African Nations Cup in Ghana. Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira also dumped first-choice defender Bradley Carnell and midfielders Delron Buckley and Macbeth Sibaya from a 23-man squad named on Friday.
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/ 28 November 2007
Makhaya Ntini remains the undisputed champion of the people after he was voted South Africa’s most popular sportsman for 2007. In a poll undertaken by BMI Sport Info, Ntini emerged at the top of the list, ahead of Bafana Bafana and Blackburn Rovers striker Benni McCarthy and world Cup-winning Springbok wing Bryan Habana.
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/ 18 November 2007
It has been said that Bafana Bafana is a sleeping giant — and, on the evidence of the 1-0 defeat against a disciplined, determined United States line-up in the annual Nelson Mandela Challenge game at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon, the sleeping giant is still sleeping.
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/ 1 November 2007
Frank Lampard’s hat-trick helped League Cup holders Chelsea snatch a dramatic 4-3 win over Leicester on Wednesday. Avram Grant’s side were slipping towards an embarrassing fourth-round defeat against the managerless Championship side — who lost Gary Megson after just six weeks to Premiership strugglers Bolton — until Andriy Shevchenko equalised with three minutes to play.
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/ 29 October 2007
New Tottenham manager Juande Ramos had only a few words to say to his players after he saw Blackburn come from behind to win 2-1 at White Hart Lane on Sunday. He told them: ”The hard work starts tomorrow.” That work involves instilling a belief in a side that is not short on talent but has forgotten how to win.
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/ 29 October 2007
Arsenal regained first place in the Premier League on Sunday thanks to a Cesc Fabregas equaliser in an entertaining 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Anfield. The Gunners trailed to Steven Gerrard’s seventh-minute free kick but the inspirational Fabregas stole in with 10 minutes remaining to give the visitors a deserved share of the points.
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/ 13 October 2007
”Don’t be alarmed,” was the instant, understandable response from Bafana Bafana media officer Sifiso Cele on Friday after he announced that striking kingpin Benni McCarthy would only be joining the squad 48 hours before the game against world champions Italy in Siena on Wednesday.
It was almost with a measure of relief that Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira announced his ”strongest available” 22-man squad on Wednesday to tackle foxy world champions Italy in their Siena lair on October 17.
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/ 12 September 2007
South Africa held Uruguay 0-0 on Wednesday in an international friendly to regain some pride after a weekend mauling by Zambia. But the 2010 soccer World Cup hosts needed help from Zimbabwe referee Tendai Bwanya to contain the visitors, who finished fourth at the Copa America in Venezuela two months ago.
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/ 8 September 2007
Anyone with an intimate knowledge of the marauding packs of Western Province and the Sharks will know why groundsman Julian Barnard said on Friday his staff would be working all night in order to get the Newlands Stadium pitch into shape for Bafana Bafana’s African Nations Cup qualifying game against Zambia.