Bafana’s Preparations Continue…

Sorry everybody! I haven’t posted in a while. I promise that with the African Cup of Nations just around the corner I’ll be posting far more regularly.

Firstly, just some quick player news! Steven Pienaar stormed out of a press conference in Durban after reporters hassled him about his delayed arrival for national duty. Everton boss Davis Moyes wanted the midfielder to play against Chelsea in the Carling Cup semi-final but SAFA refused the club permission and ordered his immediate release, well within their rights I might add.

Right back Vuyo Mere was ruled out of the tournament because of an ankle injury and has been replaced by the young Tumelo Nhlapo of Bloemfontein Celtic.

Bafana Bafana continued preparations with an international friendly against Mozambique at Chatsworth Stadium. I am pleased to report that this is the first time in a long time I wasn’t tearing my hair out watching our national team in action!

Parreira played a 4-5-1 and started with the following line-up:

Fernandez; Moon; Masilela; Morris; Mhlongo; Mokoena; Pienaar; Modise; Moriri; Tshabalala; Zuma

We controlled the game for large spells, we dominated possession and we even looked more purposeful in attack. Now while Mozambique cannot be counted as world-beaters, or even African-beaters come to think of it, such has been our dramatic fall from grace that we are actually ranked lower in Africa than the islanders.

Notably, Benson Mhlongo was drafted into the defence and Aaron Mokoena was pushed into midfield and was tasked to perform a similar role to the one he plays while on club duty for Blackburn Rovers. Surprise Moriri was asked to play the attacking midfielder role behind Zuma while Pienaar was out on the right.

The first half was played at a fairly good pace and Bafana created enough chances to go ahead. Zuma the Puma as he is affectionately known in Germany almost gave us the lead with a header saved by the keeper. Teko Modise struck a fierce long-range effort just before the interval but the score remained 0-0.

Things picked up in the second half. Moriri was replaced by Mphela who pushed farther forward to support Zuma and Bafana instantly looked sharper. Zuma thought he had given Bafana the lead when he nodded home from close range but the cross from Moon was deemed to have gone out…it didn’t!

Zuma wasn’t to be denied though, minutes later he latched onto a superbly weighted through ball from Modise, controlled the ball, turned and drove home into the far corner. It was 1-0 and looking good. Parreira then made a trio of changes Van Heerden, Fanteni and Chabangu replacing Tshabalala, Zuma and Pienaar.

Fanteni thought he made an instant impact when he rounded the keeper and passed the ball into an empty net but the linesman flagged for offside.

Deep into injury time the second goal duly arrived, Chabangu slammed home from close range after the keeper had made a hash of a cross from the right.

Now, while I’m not saying we can all gee up for a crack at the trophy I was suitably impressed by this performance! Bafana entertain Botswana in their second and final warm-up match before heading for the sweltering heat of Kumasi. I’ll bring you details of that game and hopefully an even better performance will be on the cards.