They are not there yet, but the performance of their soccer teams since Danny Jordaan took over the reins at the South African Football Association last year tells of a side that will soar and become an international giant in no time.
Their biggest letdown has been the men’s senior national team, but with former juniours coach, Shakes Mashaba now in charge, the 1996 Afcon champions look to be well on course to the apex of not only continental, but world football as well.
Mashaba has succeeded where his predecessors failed because, unlike the former Bafana Bafana coaches who stuck with what was already there, he decided to write his own script and chose a whole new national team.
His first bold step was when, facing Sudan in an away Afcon qualifier last season, he chose a team of relatively unknown juniours, some of who were going for their first national team cap. Having said his target was qualifying for the 2017 continental showcase, Bafana Bafana won that tie 3-0 as they built on that foundation to qualifying for the 2015 Afcon at the expense of even holders Nigeria.
By facilitating Mashaba’s transition from the juniours to the senior national team, SAFA also made easier the process of promoting the juniours to the ultimate set-up and that hunger for more success has been there for all to see.
A look at Mashaba’s Equatorial Guinea 2015 squad shows a team beaming with not only talent, but youth as well. After the tragic death of Senzo Meyiwa, none of Bafana Bafana’s goalkeeping regulars is in the team, while only Anele Ngcongca, Reneilwe Letsolonyane, Tokelo Rantie and Bernard Parker can claim to have been regulars in previous assignments. The rest are products of Mashaba’s Under-23 team that narrowly missed qualification to the Olympic Games.
Without doubt, SA have in the 64-year-old, a coach who values youth, form and talent, all of which make up the foundation of sustainable football development. They have huffed and puffed at the Afcon finals, but the brand of football they have displayed lately makes Bafana Bafana an exciting team to watch. Two more years under Mashaba and they would have become one of the best teams in the world.
Bring into the picture their Under-20 side, which recently won the Commonwealth Cup in Russia and the future belongs to South Africa.
In April last year, Jordaan promised to bring back the glory through an overhaul of the youth football in the country where, like in
Zimbabwe, developmental level had been neglected for years.
The first move towards attaining that was an Under-17 inter-provincial tournament that drew 240 promising footballers to the Nike Training Centre in Soweto. All nine provinces, including the academies of Wits University, Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns, were part of the spectacle. A number of similar tournaments have been held, with the results all positive.
What a model for Zimbabwe to adopt and move forward.
Post published in: Football