Tonight Orlando Pirates get the grandest chance to undo all the wrong things about South African teams when out playing on the continent, more so in north and west Africa. Pirates take a narrow lead to the second leg tie of their CAF Confederation Cup semifinal against Al Ahly in Egypt. For many years, as this blog has argued, that poor preparation and small mindedness had been the downfall of SA football on the continent. Bafana Bafana fiasco in Mauritania and Pirates 4-1 hammering in Egypt by Zamalek are the most recent examples.
South African clubs' homework about teams and locations they travel to had been appalling. It had been nauseating to hear SA players and team officials talk about "shocking conditions" when arriving home from a fixture in another part of Africa. The real shock is not the conditions, but the temerity of our teams to travel without comprehensive information about their destination, things like climate, size of playing field and socio-economic indicators, just to name a few factors.
Bafana Bafana returned from Mauritania after their 3-1 drubbing to confess that they did not know the stadium in Nouakchott had an artificial pitch. Is it rocket science to check on this things, more so that SA knew for months about their scheduled trip to Mauritania. I guess our coach and his technical did not even notice names of Senegalese origin in the Mauritanian squad...
Technical naivete is another factor letting SA teams on the continent. I guess they can easily afford to be clumsy in fixtures against other PSL teams here at home. But when you out on an international fixture, you can't take basics like trapping and passing for granted. You can't even afford not to take shorts at goal. SA players frustrate themselves by always seeking to dribble their way into the 18-yard area for them to take shot at goals. I think it would be better SA players practised the brave step of shooting from range and make it a permanent feature of their game, than being happy doing things like showboating. This belong to exhibition matches as crowd pleasing is the nature of friendly games. However once the fixture is declared official, then that means a business approach to match is required.
Our teams again seem not be sure about their strategy when playing away. What is Orlando Pirates going to play for tonight is still to be seen. Pirates need to minimise damage because they are leading by just 1-0. They need to tighten up things at the back and field a midfield that will hold things up for the team, whether in attack or in defence. Basically Pirates must play hold back Al Ahly and force a draw or win narrowly again.
It is possible for Pirates to lead the way tonight, to show SA football can turn the corner from its infamous litany of blunders. Talent of our players is not enough, and there's proof for that. All we need of our players is quest to improve on their technical ability, and seek wisdom about Africa by following current affairs or read for pleasure about the continent.
This will also boost their confidence when they hop onto the plane or bus for internationals. Knowledge is power, so lift up your heads and smile guys. Do it Pirates, do it for yourselves, the country and my dear dad who was a loyal and proud Buccaneer till the end.
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