As a soccer-mad nation and so used to the serial disappointments of our national men’s soccer team, Bafana Bafana, we are all understandably delighted that they have qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations.
LISTEN: Bafana Bafana qualify for Afcon but is this really an achievement?
But I am also very quick to caution that this is only the start of a longer journey. The real slog has only just started.
While their 2-1 victory over Liberia was still a moderately flawed performance and there is still heaps of polishing and shining to be done by Hugo Broos and his technical team, maybe our players just needed that arrogant, hard-nosed touch to bring out the best in them.
For one thing, it certainly vindicated Broos and hit back at those that have had their poison arrows aimed at him since the highly experienced Belgian set foot in SA and took charge of the national team.
It was the players who needed to do the bulk of the self-reflection and up their game after the Orlando “chaos” but whatever Broos said to them in the aftermath of that match must have worked ahead of their departure to Monrovia.
Bafana are not babies
Again it has to be stressed – the coach cannot go on the field and play for them. These are full time professionals, not babies.
We were all very quick to point our guns at the coach after the 2-2 draw at Orlando.
With the greatest of respect to our boys, the fact that Zimbabwe are banned from the competition does constitute a “favour” of sorts. We only had to win one game and draw one to qualify for Afcon and World Cup surprise package Morocco were always favourites to win the group.
Back tracking just a bit, remember under Broos, Bafana came within a single match of qualifying for the Qatar World Cup finals last year, but the way Fifa handled the Ghana refereeing debacle was despicable.
There is nothing that tastes better than humble pie, and Broos is still feasting on it.
Best of luck Bafana Bafana Bafana!.
