HOW Hugo Broos survived Friday evening I don’t know. The silver-haired Belgian coach must have aged a thousand times as Bafana Bafana contrived to take South Africa back to the bad old days when they raised the country’s hopes only to disappoint it.
Indeed, Ronwen Williams and company opted to contrive with the inept administrators at the South African Football Association by making the country’s much longed for return to the World Cup a far-fetched dream.
The failure to beat a Zimbabwe outfit that was reduced to 10 men early in the game was not the sign of a team that wants to go mix it up with the world’s best on the game’s ultimate stage.
Bafana, of course, are going to say that they had chances and point to shots by Mohau Nkota and Lyle Foster which ricocheted off the woodwork as a sign that they were unlucky. Statistics will probably also count those as shots on target.
The reality though is that they were not. The goalless draw against Zimbabwe at the Moses Mabhida Stadium is an episode in Broos’ brilliant reign that is best forgotten. Those close shaves, plus the Foster goalbound attempt that was cleared by Zimbabwe were clear signs that Bafana would just not score.
On a night when SA anticipated a ruthless Bafana to make a mockery of Fifa’s decision to dock them three points for fielding a suspended Teboho Mokoena against Lesotho by slaying a Zimbabwe side that were already knocked out, South Africa’s senior national team huffed and puffed without ever looking like they would score.
Such was their profligacy that I started wondering if that question asked of Broos earlier in the week, which I initially found laughable, was perhaps not misplaced. The Belgian was asked why he did not include striker Bradley Grobler in the squad. This seemed out of place then, particularly given that Broos does not believe in old players.
Add to that the fact that Bafana had been winning and the question seemed silly. But without Iqraam Rayners, Bafana were bereft of a goal poacher on the night. The disappointment of failing to beat Zimbabwe was compounded by Benin’s 1-nil victory over Rwanda, a result that sees them leading SA by two points with one match to go.
But all is not lost though, because should SA beat Rwanda, we could still top the group — provided Nigeria, who edged Lesotho 2-1 on Friday night, win their match at home to Benin. It just wouldn’t be a Bafana qualification campaign for a major tournament without permutations coming into the picture.
Would it? To think that we were cruising to book our place at the 2026 Fifa World Cup to be hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States. And then SA messed up that yellow card situation with Mokoena before the players did their part against Zimbabwe on Friday. One needs a strong heart to follow Bafana. — IOL