Sport Matters

Born winner. . . Rivaldo Coetzee, front, celebrates with his Ajax Cape Town U19 teammates after winning the 2013 Engen KO Challenge. He captained the side Many a Bafana Bafana fan wars either enthralled or shocked by the ease with which young Rivaldo Coetzee took his place in the Bafana defence. We know that area of the team being the territory of big, tough guys, not laaities. So how did Rivaldo came through with flying colours, aged just 17? Firstly, the lad comes from Kakamas, a place 90 percent of South Africans will die without having set foot there. The tourism town with a history of poverty is mostly known as the rest spot for travellers heading to the Aughrabies Falls, or the thinly populated west coast of South Africa. Secondly, Rivaldo has two institutions to thank for his history-making debut for Bafana in Congo last Saturday; these are Ajax Cape Town and Shakes Mashaba.   Rivaldo was moulded by the respected development structures at Ajax. He got used to winning i

South African teams do not like travelling to any of the Congos and Bafana Bafana, the senior national team, has a particular phobia for Pointe-Noire, a port in the smaller Congo. Our team team is heading there today, to face the leaders of Group A in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on Saturday. Back in 1997 SA was still inexperienced in international football, after our readmission five years earlier. On that fateful day, 6 April 1997, Bafana experienced their worst acts of intimidation and open hostility in Pointe-Noire (the Black Cape) when  their players were roughed by Congo players and soldiers on the sidelines. The soldiers also ordered SABC TV crew to switch off, while defender Mark Fish bled from military assault. Because of that fiasco in 1997 the trip to Pointe-Noire has symbolised a journey into the heart of darkness, despite Bafana Bafana traveling back to Congo three times in subsequent. The SA team won two of those matches and drew one. Horror is not