Should have expected more

Am I the only one to think that beating a 10-man France who had already had one foot on the plane to fly out last night is no big deal!?

I'm reading media reports about how Bafana Bafana "went out a high" and how "teary" coach Parreira is about leaving this post and how Aaron Mokoena is "not disheartened" by the performance of the national squad and I am just shaking my head trying to understand what the hell people are smoking.

"Going out on a high" is James Small in 1995 tackling a 120kgs of Jonah Lomu into touch and saying "I will not under ANY fucking circumstances let you think you are getting into this game or getting by me".

It is Graeme Smith walking out with his injured hand and hardly able to hold his cricket bat against the Australians to save the third test match.

From the 60th minute of the game yesterday, the game belonged to the French. They were the ones making the running while we ran out of ideas.

Make no mistake, this is one of the most expensively co-ordinated World Cup campaigns of all time and SAFA will be paying for it for years to come. I think it was the Mail & Guardian who ran a story not so long ago saying that the SAFA bank accounts are bare and were heavily dependant on some unpaid sponsorship contracts.

As for the captain of the side not being disheartened.... maybe this is the problem. Nobody was disheartened when we couldn't buy a win against African opposition in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers either. Maybe if we took these things a little more personally we would have more "gees" to win....

Easy draw for England

I think the official term is "group of death" if one looks at the South Africa group...

It is also going to be interesting to see what will happen with the betting in the next few days. I believe quite a lot of money has come for England after they got their draw.

My pick of Australia looks like they are ok and should finish in the top 2 of their group with Germany.

For those who missed the groups:

Group A - South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France -Oh my word.

Group B - Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece

Group C - England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia

Group D - Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana

Group E - Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon

Group F - Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia

Group G - Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal

Group H - Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

International soccer games

There are a couple of very interesting international soccer friendlies on the go this evening including our own Bafana Bafana.

Some tricky match ups - here are my predictions.

England vs Slovenia
I don't think you can look beyond England here. They have it all in their favour and even though I don't like backing the Poms in anything I have put a few bucks down on them winning 2-0 and 3-0.

Germany vs. South Africa
This is one of those bets you place with your heart not your head but I am quite bullish on the chances for the South African boys. World Sports Betting is giving 4.5/1 for a draw and 10/1 on a South African win and I thought that neither of those are a bad bet to take.

I've then spread a few bucks around on the following "Correct score" bets:

2-0 (Germany) - 5/1
1-1 - 10/1
1-2 (In favour of South Africa) - 28/1

Holland vs Japan
I am indifferent on both these teams at the moment and maybe for a cheap and nasty punt I would put some money on Japan but nothing really jumps out at me

South Korea vs Australia
Australia being quoted at 2/1 to win seems like a pretty safe bet here.

Apology to Joel Santana

I think I need to make a small and belated apology to Joel Santana....

As one of those South African football fans who had been very disappointed in what he had achieved prior to the Confederations Cup, I had regularly been critical of what he had achieved - particularly with his underperformance in African Cup competition.

Credit where credit is due - even without Benny McCarthy Santana has managed to put together the makings of a promising young side - and one that could make a nice contribution at next years 2010 world cup.

It is still early days but let's say I am far more positive than I was before the Confederations Cup!

What has SA soccer achieved?

From the Sports Mongrel blog

I don't mean to be an ultra-SA-pessimist but the question has to be asked - what exactly has South African soccer achieved in the last 5 years?

This was the question going through my mind after the 0-0 draw with Iraq on Sunday evening.

Sponsors have poured an absolute bucket-load into player development, coaches, improving league standards etc and all the while the average ranking of South Africa in global terms has gone down. If I remember correctly we are now ranked 72nd in the world.

That is disappointing considering that in terms of rand invested per player, we must be one of the highest on the continent.

The African countries ranked above us at this moment in time according to the Fifa rankings at the start of June are:

• Cameroon (21)
• Nigeria (30)
• Ghana (36)
• Ivory Coast (38)
• Egypt (40)
• Gabon (48)
• Burkina Faso (50)
• Tunisia (51)
• Guinea (53)
• Mali (54)
• Morocco (55)
• Gambia (65)
• Algeria (66)
• Uganda (67)
• Togo (68)
• Libya (69)

If I understand the rankings correctly then we need to bear in mind that apart from Nigeria and Cameroon, we've played far tougher opposition than many of these other teams so our rankings might suffer a bit.

Can I pinpoint why we don't succeed? Nope.

We have money, we have players, we have (in many cases) world class administrators who have put us in front of the world with match-ups against the worlds best.

Is it our coaches? Aaaahh now this is a question that begs to be asked. Phillipe Troussier and Carlos Alberto Parreira are some of the biggest names in world football. Joel Santana was hand-picked by Parreira (who one must assumes knows what he was doing).

Go back in history and see who SA's most successful coaches were - Clive Barker and Jomo Sono - two South African guys with limited international know-how but an ability to gel with their local players.

Personally I think it could be a more fundamental problem - South African football has no real strategy. We talk a big game with big ambitions but if you zero in on it - we don't really have an overall strategy for SA soccer in terms of where we want to be and no accountability in terms of achieving it.

To me it is mind-boggling that we can't qualify for the African Nations Cup?! But there doesn't seem to have been repercussions for those in charge or being paid to perform on the field. You can rebuild as much as you like, I get the sense that South Africa is simply trying to shoot too high with the wrong resources.

If a decent plan isn't in place then we need to accept that perhaps its better we pour money into BMX or tennis or even lawn-darts rather than overspending on soccer.

SA vs Norway

Bafana Bafana will take on Norway in the 2009 Nelson Mandela Challenge at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on March 28.

With 2010 and the Confederations Cup around the corner, would you pay to watch a fixture like this as a bit of warm up to these major fixtures? How much would you be prepared to pay for a ticket to one of these friendlies?

South Africans playing "Brazilian" football

I appreciate that Bafana Bafana have managed to knock up 5 wins in their last 5 fixtures but I still have a "bigger picture" concern.

The South African Football Association have officially / unofficially indicated that they want South Africa to try and emulate the highly creative football style that the Brazilian sides enjoy.

Without being overly negative I have two questions ... How exactly are we supposed to do this? Why are we trying to emulate a style we don't have the players to go with the style?

Very simply we have a problem scoring goals when we don't have Benni McCarthy there. The Brazilians on the other hand can score goals from pretty much anywhere...

We don't have a Ronaldinho or a Fred or somebody else who can single-handedly dominate a game.

However we do have some gritty (and creative) midfield players and some tough defenders. Why don't we play to this strength? Why do we need to copy a team that has a completely different set of players?

Why can't we develop our own style and dominate with this style?

Am I being unfair...?

Nice draw for Bafana Bafana in the Confederations Cup draw

The South African team has drawn Spain, Iraq and New Zealand in Group A for the Confederations Cup. Some interesting match ups there and if SA can get there heads out of the clouds then we could get through the first round.

World champions Italy, Brazil, Egypt and the United States are in Group B.

Bafana kick-off the Confederations Cup against Iraq who are something of an unknown quantity on 14 June at Ellis Park (Coca Cola Park) in Gauteng

Spain and New Zealand take on eachother at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium the same night.

On 17 June 2009, Bafana play New Zealand at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on June 17 at 8.30pm and then wrap up their group stage against Spain who are at the Free State Stadium on June 20.

Planning to travel and support your team?

Imperial Europcar. Book your car online now! Click Here

Book a holiday in South Africa - Click Here

TravelStart.co.za Find out which airline is really the cheapest - Click Here

The irony of South African sport

Sport remains a hugely political tool in South Africa and I think many ordinary people find it frustrating when government officials who haven’t seen a sports field (let alone run on one) start making bold predictions about how they are going to ‘fix’ things.

Upfront, I completely acknowledge that sport was largely divided along racial lines in the past so I don’t deny that there is some merit in the racial arguments.

However the landscape is changing. No side in South African cricket or rugby enjoys the backing of the likes of billionaire Patrice Motsepe. The South African football side is not subjected to selection criteria of local, black coaches or quotas. In fact if one adds up how much the national football side has spent on foreign coaches or advisors over the last decade, it must be a massive figure.

This week has been a case in point about government administrators getting on their high horse and focusing on the wrong aspects of South African sport.

Every few years, sports administrators (typically those with political ties), will get together to hold a sports indaba of sorts where the ‘future strategic direction’ of sport will be covered. Ironically senior figures in cricket, rugby and soccer are normally not invited to give their input.

A hot topic this week has been the future of the Springbok emblem worn by the national rugby team. The politicos it should go because they believe it divides South Africa along racial lines.

The ‘logical decision’ is that it must go to unite South African sport.

Please note that senior rugby administrators and players were not invited to comment at this congress / indaba / conference or whatever they want to call it.

(Bear in mind – nobody actually knows if these guys have any legal backing to the ‘decisions’ that are taken here nor do they enjoy backing of the ruling government party, even if it is convened by some of its more militant members).

Now let’s remember that South African rugby has won 2 World Cups, a Tri-Nations, has a good black coach that is there on merit and has been able to attract an increasingly mixed racial audience to its grounds.

Soccer on the other hand is plumbing new lows. Millions have been spent on foreign coaches, the players themselves are reluctant to play and pick and choose the games they want. The national side is barely competitive with the minnows on the African continent that have budgets probably one fiftieth of what Bafana Bafana enjoys.

The national Olympics team managed a single medal at the 2008 Olympics campaign. We took along more non participating members in our squad than actually athletes, sponsors were disappointed or more interested in sponsoring the Paralympics squad and despite this, the athletes were poorly managed.

Throw in the fact that we have local government departments trying to sell off the land on which grass roots sports clubs operate to make sure that their books balance at the end of the year and the minor issue of a global financial crisis that is robbing all sports disciplines of sponsorship money and we have a pretty grim sports scene.

But no – the priority is to make sure we get rid of a brand that is highly successful, generates a lot of revenue for grass roots sports development.

I think we all agree that sport in South Africa is not perfect, but the meddling of sports officials is somewhat ironic. They talk about wanting to improve sport, but the idea of actually focusing on the problems is something that escapes some people’s agendas.

Blatter slams Bafana Bafana

Fifa president Sepp Blatter said on Monday he was disappointed with the recent performance of the national team of the 2010 World Cup host country South Africa.

"I am disappointed that during the years since 2004 when this World Cup has been given to South Africa...the national team is not better," Blatter told journalists after a visit to the building site of Cape Town's Green Point Stadium.

He said it was "incredible" that Bafana Bafana had gone from being the African Cup of Nation champions in 1996 to failing to even qualify for the crunch tournament in 2008.

"I cannot understand it. It is the last moment now to move...do something, move it," he said.

These were comments made by Sepp Blatter and quoted on a 24.com website. Terrible that we are being seen in such a negative light at the moment...

Read the full article here....

Former Bafana boss blasts Santana

Bafana Bafana's most successful coach Clive Barker has called on the South African Football Association (Safa) to set up a round table meeting with former local born national coaches as a matter of urgency.

Read the complete article here.

Banana Banana

Ok I am not normally cynical but I read a really weird comment that had been attributed to Benni McCarthy this morning. I would love to support our national side and really get behind them - but they say and do some really baffling things - so for tonight they are BANANA BANANA (and no that is not racist!)

Apparently Benni said it wasn't that bigger deal that we have been knocked out of the qualification African Nations Cup by Nigeria yesterday. His logic was that if had gone to the African Nations Cup and we had won it next year and then we had gone to the World Cup and been knocked out in the first round, our fans would have been disappointed....

uuuuhhhh Benni - we have a better than average chance of being knocked out of the first round. While Nigeria are getting game time against all the major African powerhouses (minus SA), our guys are going to be at home trying to find SOMEBODY to play a game against....

Are you nuts?!

You can't just stand back and say "oh well we didn't qualify for the African Nations Cup, but we're building to the World Cup"....

IT'S A BLOODY CATASTROPHE...

With our strongest players and a multi-million Rand coach, the African Nations Cup was something we could have and should have won. A bit of pride and prestige would have been shoved the South African way after all the grief we have given the players and coach.

Instead we shrug our shoulders and say that it is no big deal.

What better way to have built South African support going into the World Cup campaign, than being the champions of Africa?!

Unfortunately we committed ourselves to this bloody expensive coach and subsequently his mate - and we've got nothing to show for it except a country like Lesotho playing in our spot.

I really hope that the South African side comes right in the next few months. They need hard games against quality opposition and they need a settled side.
The coach can no longer be guessing which players he is planning to use. He's got them - now he has to make them do the business.

I'm sorry but you guys are BANANA BANANA until you can give the fans what they are looking for....

Why Santana will fail in South Africa

As Bafana Bafana approach what might turn out to be the most defining game of the progress made (or lack thereof), more doubts have been cast about the man at the helm, Joel Natalino Santana.
Top article from Lux Mantambo here....

World with Benni

Well South African prodigal son Benni McCarthy has strolled back into the national football side and promptly lifted the side’s game without trying particularly hard. Benni was instrumental in the credible 2-2 draw with Australia in London on Tuesday.

For those who don’t know the story, Benni basically turned into something of a grumpy boy as people questioned his position on the whole club vs. country debate.

No Benni = a very average Bafana Bafana side.

McCarthy suddenly got back in the side and we’re competing with a top ranked side like Australia.

His 2 touches to setup the goal prove just how classy he is and just how easy it is for him to play at this level.

He has now committed himself to the national side for the duration of the campaign up to the 2010 World Cup, lets just hope he now stays fit for that time!

Who the hell runs South African football?!

I've come to the conclusion that Carlos Alberto Parreira probably runs the South African national team. He's not the coach, he's not an administrator, but he still gets paid the big bucks to make the decisions.

Consider his actions since he was appointed as the South African national coach (briefly)...

R1.8m a month, coached for a couple of months, appointed his team (including communicators) as part of a long term strategy to see us go to the World Cup.

A couple of months into the job we look like we're making some (VERY) marginal progress and suddenly his wife falls ill. Instead of taking some kind of leave of absence, he calls a press conference and announces his resignation.

Tricky that...

But curiously he has decided who the next South African coach is going to be ... Its Joel Santana his mate from Brazil.

Santana makes no real impact on the side, we lose a couple of games we should have won and then he goes on holiday back to Brazil. Now this week Bafana Bafana are taking on Australia with hardly any time together.

Weird...

Even weirder is that Parreira is suddenly being quoted by South African papers as saying he has become available again as a special consultant ....

This whole soccer lark is ridiculous and you can't wonder why our players look clueless on the field. Because their coaching staff are clueless about what they want and aren't exactly sending out a message of confidence to players, spectators and administrators.

This whole Parreira thing is turning into an expensive mistake...