SA soccer mentally humstrung by CAF

Destroyer. . . Firmin Ndombe Mubele of AS Vita Club scored the hattrick which ended Kaizer Chiefs run in 2014 CAF Champions League. Mubele starred for DR Congo during the CHAN tournament in SA in January.

The early fall of Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United in 2014 CAF competitions served to highlight the shortcomings of South African football in the international arena. Complaints about referees notwithstanding, we just don't know how to prepare for the game at this level. Orlando Pirates had a brave run last year in the Champions League, losing to Al Ahly in the final. But even then, Pirates were not a dominating force but just managing to scrape through mostly on the away goal rule until the Egyptian giants brought it to an end. 

Once again, SA clubs were eliminated early, mostly due to poor preparation. After relatively pleasant trips to Windhoek and Maputo in the earlier rounds of the Championship, Chiefs came unstuck in Kinshasa, losing 0-3 to AS Vita of Congo.
Reports about the first leg game in DRC indicate that Chiefs were the aggressors, while the home team benefited from counter-attack situations. That's not how the visiting team plays the first leg. The visitors should play to minimise harm in the first leg, and then go all out to finish the job at home. As it is, Chiefs comfortably won 2-0 at home but the damage was done in Kinshasa a  week earlier.

As far as the referee issue is concerned, I can only speak about the game I watched, that is the SuperSport United v Etoile du Sahel. The referees were bad and never ceased to amaze and frustrate the small but enthusiastic crowd at Lucas Moripe Stadium last Saturday night. But one thing was clear: the referee and his assistants were bad, not biased. They awarded free kicks and penalties were they never existed, with both penalties on the night going to United's favour.

So United's fall had to do a lot with their approach than the match officials. For starters the Tunisians acclimatised quicker to conditions in the ground, while United struggled the whole first half to contend with the wind speed and dew factor. It was embarrassing to see the home team slip sliding all over the park,  passes and shots at goal going astray because the players did not know much about the wind direction and speed in the hour of kickoff.

And how they conceded four goals boils down to technical inefficiencies of the defence, which was continuously forced to play backpasses to the keeper. One of these resulted in United chief tormentor, 21-year-old Malian striker Michailou Drame, stealing the ball and rounding off poorly protected Ronwen Williams. The less said about other defensive howlers the better.

The final straw for me was when Mame Niang missed from the spot kick in the 85th minute. Until that minute Niang had the worst game of the season, with the fans screaming for his replacement. For him to be given the penalty lent itself to poor decision-making because the gangly Senegalese was mentally out of it, and so was his co-striker Bradley Grobler. 

General lack of hunger by SuperSport United at their home ground and Chiefs' players talking about their Kinshasa game a week earlier as if their destination was Lubumbashi, a good 2 000km away the DRC capital, does not help our cause at all. I mean, how do you win a battle when you don't know the location of the battle field?

Once again, SA teams come short in CAF club competitions not because they are worse off materially, but because mentally they are not up to it. This CAF season Chiefs at least have another chance to correct their errors in the Confederation Cup, where they were relegated after the loss to Vita. They've been drawn against West Africa's powerhouse, ASEC Mimosas of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, later this month.