It has been 16 years since South Africa
celebrated an African glory under the leadership of Neil Tovey. All eyes are on
South Africa come 2013 AFCON. SA replaces Libya as the host for next year Afcon
due to political instability. There is no doubt that our country is ready in
terms of infrastructure. However it is questionable on our national team
readiness that keeps on dropping on the FIFA rankings that it will manage to
turn the tables around and flabbergast many.
One more time eyes will be on the national
coach Pitso Mosimane to prove himself as the best local coach by taking the
team to the final stages of the tournament if he doesn’t win it. The fact that
he has just been joined by Steve Mbutana Komphela who is currently managing
Free state stars has actually restored hope on many home football lovers that
our national pride can be prioritized by taking best decisions that will result on winning the games despite
of the team we play. Komphela will be there working with Pitso Mosimane and
Jairo Leal.
The Kroonstad born mentor was once a
national under 23 Coach though he did not impress that much but he has worked
well with the players and produced the best in them. He is expected to add
value to the national team. Perhaps he can also teach the current coach and the
SAFA executive the CAF rules and avoid the embarrassment of dancing for a major
loss as we saw this happening when we failed to qualify for 2012 AFCON which
was won by Zambia.
The country has hotels, proper roads,
stadiums of international class and other infrastructures that are needed for a
successful international event. All we need now is to find a consistent team
and start building up. It is questionable though whether Mosimane and his two assistants
will be able to work together without any clash of ideas that could result on a
national disaster in terms of results on the pitch. Mosimane and Komphela were
quoted in the media saying they have been friends for some time and they will
form a great technical team. Komphela even quoted from the bible during his
announcement by SAFA, maybe he will pass the word of God to the players as well
and lead us to the glorious moments instead of pointing fingers on the
traditional heal (inyanga) for our poor results.
A t this moment it would be a lie to say we
are ready as the nation. The fact that we could not qualify for 2012 afcon and
failed to win the friendly matches that followed after we failed to qualify. Zambia
has never hosted a major tournament, it has no bigger names or brands but they
defeated big teams such Ivory Coast and wrote their names on the history books
of major achievements. If they did it coming from the Southern part of Africa,
well, what can stop us? If SAFA will stop to interfere and allow these guys to
do their duties surely we’ll sing a different song from the one we have been
singing over the years.
As reported by IOL,
the South African Football Association (Safa) expects Bafana Bafana to reach the
final of the 2013 African Cup of Nations, and has effectively warned coach Pitso
that he stands to lose his job if the side cannot make it past the group
stages. Let’s hope the SAFA promise will work on Pitso’s best ability to
produce good and expected results.
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