Good luck Baby Bafana

This was a forgettable year for South African football as far as the senior national team Bafana Bafana are concerned.

Bafana were lucky to get an easy qualifying group for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Africa, the oil-rich hosts on the west coast of central Africa. As it is, the country will watch the best of African football battle out for honours without SA's involvement, for the second edition in a row.

It does not offer any consolation to say former champions and powerhouses Cameroon and Nigeria have also failed to qualify. Their problems have nothing to do with us, when our house is falling apart despite all the available resources to fix it.

Failure to stamp their authority against lightweights such as Niger and Sierra Leone was appalling and as a result we were rightfully excluded from the continental showpiece in January. Even more horrifying, Bafana played their fourth match against Sierra Leone this year, and are still to score a goal against the tiny republic still trying to shake off the ravages of an ugly civil war.

The final insult, needless to say, was losing the last match of the horror year to Zimbabwe. Eighty per cent of the Zim squad was made of South African-based players so there is no excuse. I am not suggesting Zimbabwe are useless (they won by the way). I am only saying if we can't beat them who can we beat?

The stinker was when Fifa confirmed our receding fortunes by pushing us out of its top 50 in the rankings. Zambia qualified for Afcon 2012 but fired the coach nevertheless because he was too weak to match Zambia's ambition. Now that's a clear case of strong leadership.

By the way, Nigeria and Cameroon also fired their coaches for their failures and what about us? It's business as usual for Pitso Mosimane, despite failing on his mandate to qualify South Africa for 2012. It does not matter how qualified or good natured the man is, but in this business outcomes determine the future.

As a consolation we can only hope for the best for the under-23 team in their campaign to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The qualifying tournament kicks of in Morocco tomorrow but Shakes Mashaba and the boys will take to the field on Sunday, against an impressive Ivory Coast.
 
Isn't it amazing that SA football pledges to clean up and rise again, and yet Mashaba was given so much hassle by local clubs just to get the players the country needs to succeed in Morocco?

Anyway power to Baby Bafana. Ride those young Elephants on Sunday and win. . . you are the future.
 

New on the sport front

I welcome you all to this new blog through which I will be giving opinion on matters of sport, mainly football, Olympic sports and roadrunning. I will try my best to produce new material on regular basis, despite my tight work and family schedules.
In the meantime, watch this space.