Bafana Draw Against New Guinea

09 January 2012

Bafana Bafana opened their 2012 account with a goalless draw against Equatorial Guinea in Bata City on Friday evening, in a match marking the opening of the 40 000-seater Nkoantoma Stadium.

The side was far from full strength, with some leading PSL clubs electing not to make their players available, and many overseas-based players not considered for selection either.

Five men - Brilliant Khuzwayo, Eric Mathoho, Ayanda Gcaba, Granwald Scott and May Mahlangu - made their first starts for the national team, while Ryan Chapman came on as a substitute in the second half.

Good impression

Mahlangu, Sweden's Player of the Year, made a good impression, but his skills were dealt with ruthlessly by the Equatorial Guinea players. Protection, sadly, was scant from the referee, whose performance appeared to favour the home team.

Three South Africans were carded in the first half. An hour into the contest, after a bad challenge on Mahlangu, Bafana captain Morgan Gould was controversially dismissed for protesting the challenge on the midfielder, leaving South Africa to play the final half-hour with 10 men.

Just before the end of the game, Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane was shown a red card.

"I do not even want to talk about that incident, as I believe it was mistaken identity by the referee," he told the South African Football Association afterwards. "But I must commend my players. They did very well under the circumstances - even though they had to break short their holiday to be with us, sacrificing family time.

'Will to fight'

"We had only two training sessions, used eight uncapped players on a heavy pitch. It's quite an achievement as they were tactically disciplined, especially when we were a man short. They showed the will to fight for their country.

"I would like to thank all those clubs that came to our rescue when we had no players," he concluded.

No answers were forthcoming for Bafana in the area of finishing, which has been a long time problem for the team. Then again, neither team fared well, some of which could be attributed to the new pitch, which was far from smooth.

Despite being sent off, captain Gould saw some positives in the showing of his team. "The performance from these youngsters proves just how much talent is available in this country," he said. "Under trying circumstances they managed to give a good showing.

"Let me hasten to add that there is still a lot of improvement to be made, but it was a good start.

'Proud'

"I am proud of the effort they put in to helping the side get a draw with a man short after we suffered a red card, and I believe we should have won the match," he added.

A concern about the result against the 150th ranked Equatorial Guineans is that the draw means Bafana Bafana have gone five matches without a win. Previously they lost 2-1 to Zimbabwe in Harare, drew 1-1 with Côte d'Ivoire in Port Elizabeth, drew goalless against Sierra Leone in Nelspruit, and lost 2-1 to Niger in Niamey.

Their last victory came in August 2011 when they outplayed highly-rated Burkina Faso 3-0 in Johannesburg.

Forthcoming matches

Bafana Bafana will be in action in two practice matches next, against African Cup of Nations finalists Zambia and Ghana.

They face Zambia at the Rand Stadium in Johannesburg on Wednesday, with the match kicking off at 16:30.

On Sunday they take on Ghana at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg. The game starts at 16:00.

Source: Brad Morgan - South Africa.Info