It was like chalk and cheese when two Bafana Bafana squads played simultaneously in the past week. While we applaud the whole exercise as one of the most brilliant ideas to come from Safa, there are still some question marks.
The makoya Bafana squad, coached by the crafty Hugo Broos played in two friendly international matches against Tanzania and Mozambique in the Fifa calendar week.
The other makeshift Bafana team was put together to participate in the Cosafa Cup. This team was made up of talented, up-and-coming fringe players on the verge of breaking through in the Betway Premiership. However, players such as Kabelo Dlamini, Mdu Shabalala, Boitumelo Radiopane, Aiden McCarthy, Ime Okon, Wandile Duba, Vuyo Letlapa, Masindi Nemtajela, Puso Dithejane and Mondli Mpoto were made to sweat blood to reach the final of the Cosafa Cup.
With the Mamelodi Sundowns players not available, because they will be playing in the Fifa Club World Cup in Ameri-ca, the exercise was to create a bigger pool of players and to widen the net for Broos and junior national team coaches.
Safa has candidly created a bigger pool of players for the coach as he fine tunes the senior national team for the coming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and also for the final stages of the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
This also provided an opportunity for the SA Under-20 (Amajita) coach Raymond Mdaka, who will be taking his tiny-tots to the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Chile in September.
The national association has been attracting a lot of criticism for the manner in which it is being run. The media has been all over Safa like a cheap suit. President Danny Jordaan is under immense pressure from the disgruntled national executive committee members who are calling for his head.
Safa officials, including Jordaan, appeared in parliament before the portfolio committee of sports, where they were cut to pieces and turned into mincemeat.
They just did not have the answers for the committee members, and it is clear as daylight that Safa is broke, the sponsors are not forthcoming, VAR
matter is still up in the air, TV broadcast deals are not yielding the required capital and there’s internal strife and uncertainty among full-time staffers.
The only solace is that the national teams are doing a fantastic job on the field and are saving face for the office bearers. And while this past week’s Bafana project worked, there was a rather disturbing sharp contrast. The gulf seems to be too big between Broos’ team and the Cosafa Cup team.
While Broos’ Bafana were castrating Mozambique, Mdaka’s team needed a backdoor entry to the semifinals. Their performance left many supporters unimpressed and asking whether the players were good enough.
And, mind you, the players in that Cosafa Cup team are not DStv Diski Challenge stars, they have been around the block long enough. Skipper Kwanda Mngonyama is long in the tooth and the likes of Dlamini, Shabalala, Duba, Okon and Radiopane are rocking it in the PSL week in, week out.
Individually, they are not grabbing the opportunity presented to them and what’s going to happen when the Sundowns superstars come back? They may not get a chance ever again.
They are just too talented to be going through the motions, they are match winners in their clubs and they should step up when called for duty, even if its just the Cosafa Cup.
