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/ 15 October 2007
What South African soccer officials had naively viewed as a formality on Sunday turned into failure as Amaglug-glug went down 3-1 to Ghana’s Black Meteors at the Elwak Stadium in Accra and surrendered all hope of qualifying for next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
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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.
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/ 11 October 2007
”Enjoy yourself,” was the parting advice of Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to his 12 locally-based players before leaving OR Tambo Airport on Wednesday night for the challenge against world champions Italy in Siena next 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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/ 29 September 2007
A first half free kick from Teko Modise was enough to ensure victory for a makeshift South African side in the Saturday’s Cosafa Castle Cup semifinal against Botswana at Atteridgeville, near Pretoria. Modise netted in the 32nd minute to set up a final meeting with Zambia next month, at a venue to be decided.
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/ 27 September 2007
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has criticised the South African soccer authorities for not showing more concern in his quest to shape up his team for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. ”We are hosting the World Cup in two-and-a-half years and people don’t seem to understand the urgency in preparing the team for it,” said Parreira.
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/ 12 September 2007
One thousand days before the most popular show on earth rolls into Africa for the first time, the 2010 Soccer World Cup hosts face a mammoth task in organising the extravaganza and silencing party-poopers. Delays to stadium construction, questions over transport and nervousness over safety have left South Africa constantly having to reassure that all will be right.
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/ 11 September 2007
In a startling admission, many of the Bafana Bafana players have confirmed they were ”in the dark” over the Confederation of African Football rules that resulted in Zambia catapulting past South Africa to become Group 11 winners after their stunning 3-1 win in an African Nations Cup qualifier in Cape Town on Sunday.
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/ 10 September 2007
Namibia and Zambia both pulled off shock wins in the African Nations Cup qualifiers at the weekend to book their places at the 2008 finals in Ghana. They were joined by fellow group winners Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal while 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa sneaked in the back door.
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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.
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/ 7 September 2007
In the end, all it took was a quick stop-off on the way home from not-so-sunny Scotland to sort out the Benni McCarthy problem once and for all. After Bafana Bafana had lost 1-0 a fortnight ago in Aberdeen, somewhere close to the arctic circle, coach Carlos Alberto Parreira did what World Cup-winning coaches do when they want their nation’s best striker to play for them. He asked him.
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/ 4 September 2007
Privileged to the end, the grand re-entry of Benni McCarthy into the Bafana Bafana squad for Sunday’s African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia at Newlands Stadium will materialise on Wednesday — a day after the remaining South African players are due to be ensconced in their Cape Town camp.
South Africa star striker Benni McCarthy will end a 19-month international exile when he plays against Zambia in Cape Town next weekend. The Blackburn Rovers striker, second highest English Premiership scorer last year, was included on Wednesday in a 22-man squad for an African Nations Cup Group 11 qualifier on September 9 at Newlands Stadium.