October match against Seychelles now becomes much more important than it needed to be.
When it scored a draw against Libya last weekend, the South African National football team–Bafana Bafana–missed a chance of topping the group in a 2019 Afcon match qualifier. The team now finds itself second in the group, level on points with group leaders Libya. It will take on the bottom of the group side, Seychelles, in October.
Bafana Bafana (photo, Safa.net)
Earlier in the year, Bafana got three points against Nigeria, the so-called “African football powerhouse.” With that outcome, the Libya fixture was supposed to be a win, making the team the group leader. But, true to form, that status slipped through Bafana’s hands.
Normally, Bafana is a good starter, but a terrible finisher. But as Steve Komphela (among others) says, “Statistics are like a bikini, they reveal a lot but they don’t tell the whole story.”
While we have no choice other than to look at history, a question still remains: Who knows how Bafana will fare against wounded Seychelles in October?
Last year, Bafana had everything under control–only to lose right in the end. In 2018 World Cup group qualifiers, Bafana had maximum points against Senegal (draw and a win) at Burkina Faso. A win and two draws would have guaranteed them a spot at this year’s World Cup.
But guess what? Bafana went on to register two losses against Siera Lione, the lowest ranked team in the group. A replay against Senegal was then issued out, but the team lost fixtures both home and away. Those losses doomed Bafana’s World Cup chances.
A leopard never changes its spots, they say.
Yes, this time it’s only two matches into the group and, by the look of things, the 2019 Afcon qualification seems to be in the cards. But what can’t be overlooked is the way history always seems to have a way of repeating itself.
Let’s hope Bafana will not fumble this time around and comes out with guns blazing.
If Coach Stuart Baxter fails to Bafana to Afcon 2019, I sense a terrible future for South African football.
