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| Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba (Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix) |
Bafana Bafana coach, Shakes
Mashaba look to be edging ever so close to the exit door at SAFA house after a
string of unimpressive results during the 2017 AFCON qualifying games.
Apart from Hlompho Kekana’s
wonder goal against Cameroon, Mashaba’s team has been poor throughout the
qualifying campaign having managed to collect three points out of a possible
12.The team currently sit at the third spot in group M and is left with two
games to play.
In the first game of the qualifiers
Bafana Bafana played a goal-less draw to Gambia, a country which had been
banned for a year by FIFA. This was
followed by a shocking 3-1 away defeat to ‘minnows’, Mauritania, a country
which many of us first heard about few days prior to the Bafana Bafana game.
From those two games it was
clear that the team was heading in the wrong direction. This was recently followed by poor squad selection for
the two games against Cameroon.
The inclusion of skipper
Itumeleng Khune came as a shock, even though we know that he is an experienced
campaigner but justice need to be done at times. He had not been playing for
over a month and he came in straight into the first team.
Even though many South African
still criticize Darren Keet mistakes against Algeria as the reason for Bafana Bafana’s early
exit at last year’s AFCON, but Khune himself deserves criticism. It was his
goalkeeping fault that led to the ‘flood’ of goals we conceded against
Mauritania.
Maybe time has arrived where
players are selected according to their performances. Will we ever see Kamohelo
Mokotjo playing a full 90 minutes for Bafana Bafana? Will we ever see Kermit
Erasmus given a chance to play for Bafana Bafana? , What about CBD’s inform
Keegan Dolly?
Really!! Shakes, Ndumiso
Mabena over Keegan Dolly?
We also need to admit that
this is the man that led us to the AFCON 2015 in Equatorial Guinea after years
of failing to secure qualification.
When Mashaba took over from
Gordon Igusend we all saw positivity in nurturing talent. In his Bafana Bafana
second spell squad selection he included players like Ayabulela Maqwaga,
Dumisani Msibi, Fegrie Lakay, Keegan Dolly.
From there we all thought that
Mashaba meant business in achieving the goals of vision 2018 and 2022.
What happened to calling all these “youngsters”?
Clearly, it now looks almost
impossible to qualify for the for 2017 AFCON. I wouldn’t expect the
Indomitable Lions of Cameroon to tumble against Gambia and Mauritania in their remaining
two games in the group.
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