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 a nice picture to have about fellow Africans. I want to believe a lot has changed in the intervening period because 1997 was not a good year for Congo and its people. In April of that year the political situation was tense and the government soldiers operated with impunity, like a militia group, with the blessings of a highly paranoid President Pascal Lissouba.
On June 5, Lissouba's forces surrounded the Brazzaville compound of his rival Denis Sassou-Nguesso but the latter ordered his own militia, the Cobras, to resist. The exchange of fire would continue until October when Angola troops invaded Brazzaville in favour of Sassou-Nguesso, who installed himself president and is still in power today.
Bafana are a better team since Shakes Mashaba took over three months ago. Judging by the fearless approach Mashaba and his boys showed in Sudan and against Nigeria, the ghost of Pointe-Noire is ready to be buried. But footballwise, it won't be that easy because the Red Devils are also a different team from the days we used to beat. Winds of change have been blowing in recent for Congo football in recent years, as seen by the competence of its champion club Leopards of Dolisie in CAF competitions. Dolisie is a town 110km north-east of Pointe-Noire, on the N1 linking Brazzaville to Pointe-Noire.
Morever, the Devils boast an increased number of foreign-based players including their inspirational captain Prince Oniangue. The Paris-born midfielder scored in each of Congo first two matches in Group A, as the Red Devils beat Nigeria (3-2) and Sudan 2-0.
Even more significant was the appointing of veteran of African football Claude Le Roy to coach the side. The Frenchman is revered for being a disciplinarian who managed to bring the best out of many national teams on the continent, including DR Congo, Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana.
Congo was ranked 84th in the world when Leroy took over the reigns in December 2013. A string of victories has improved their position to 48, far above 67th ranked South Africa who are rebuilding after a long-term collapse.
It is now up to Bafana to prove that the rankings can mean nothing by slaying the Devils one more time on Saturday. Beef up boys; turn Pointe-Noire into the most pleasant resort ever!
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