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Santana's Bafana victorious

Brad Morgan

9 June 2008

After Bafana Bafana opened the Joel Santana era with a disappointing 2-0 loss to Nigeria, they quickly made amends with a comprehensive and crucial 4-1 win over Equatorial Guinea in a 2010 African Nations Cup qualifying match in Atteridgeville on Saturday.

A win was vital for Bafana as Equatorial Guinea had beaten Sierra Leone 2-0 in their first qualifier (for the other countries in the group, also a 2010 Fifa World Cup qualifier.) A loss would have left South Africa with a deep hole to climb out of, but they thoroughly outplayed the visitors at the Super Stadium to put a smile on coach Santana's face.

Passion

Such was the improvement of South Africa that it was difficult to equate the side that did duty against Equatorial Guinea with the team that was so thoroughly dominated by Nigeria. The passion that was so notably absent in Abuja was back.

Given that the opposition were ranked only six places below South Africa in the Fifa world rankings, it was a surprisingly one-sided encounter.

The PSL's player of the year, Teko Modise, excelled with a vigorous performance in the midfield, while Kagisho Dikgacoi, a defensive midfielder, showed up well at the other end of the field, twice finding the back of the net in his most convincing outing yet for the national team.

Fanteni excelled

Striker Terror Fanteni made fans forget about the absence of Benni McCarthy with a well-rounded performance that was rewarded with his first-ever international goal.

Sadly, after the poor showing in Nigeria, a poor crowd turned up for the game. The last time Bafana Bafana had played at the Super Stadium was in a friendly against Paraguay in April and that game had ended in a mightily impressive 3-0 win for the home team.

Five minutes into the match, Steven Pienaar forced a first save out of goalkeeper Emmanuel Danilo. Fanteni then signaled his intent from the resulting corner by blasting the ball into the side netting, but he was ruled offsides anyway.

Goal

Pienaar came close when a pass from Modise just failed to find him, but a minute later luck favoured the home side when a scorching drive from Dikgacoi was deflected past the goalie to give South Africa an early lead.

The SA team had started well and the early goal lent more confidence to their approach as they took the game to the visitors, who had adopted a defensive 4-5-1 line-up.

Fanteni was making a nuisance of himself and had a shot on goal blocked. Equatorial Guinea then almost fell two goals behind when a cross from Bryce Moon was deflected just wide of goal by one of their defenders.

Bafana Bafana continued to press forward, forcing corner after corner, while at the other end of the field, the Guineans were quiet.

Pressure

With 11 minutes to go to the break, South Africa's relentless pressure paid off again as Surprise Moriri doubled the home team's score.

A cross from the industrious Modise was ineffectively headed away by a defender and Modise benefited, beating Danilo in the Equatorial Guinea goal as the goalie tried to close down the danger.

The Guineans managed a shot on goal just before halftime, but Itumeleng Khune, who had been preferred to Rowen Fernandez, was up to the task and Bafana Bafana went into the break having totally controlled the game. They were two goals to the good and it could have been more.

From the restart the South African team settled down to controlling possession and territory. It took a little over 10 minutes before Danilo was tested again; a cross from Modise turned into a shot that the keeper had to clear from just beneath his crossbar.

Comfortable lead

After such a strong and impressive first half performance, it seemed as if Bafana Bafana were content to sit on their lead and merely give the Equatorial Guinea team the run-around, but a little past the hour mark they again opened up the visitors' defence with Fanteni netting to put South Africa 3-0 in front.

A perceptive and well-executed ball from Pienaar put Joel Masilela through and his neatly centred pass was confidently tucked home by Fanteni, who scored for the first time in 14 internationals, many of which he had played in off of the bench.

With a quarter of an hour to go the Guineans were awarded a controversial penalty. Senegalese referee Samba Abdou Diouf ruled that Khune had brought down substitute Pablo Armando inside the South African box.

The Bafana Bafana players bitterly disputed the ruling, but the referee stuck to his decision, which was curious to say the least. It was one of many poor decisions by him during the course of the match.

Guinean reply

Juvenal Edjogo took the spot kick and beat Khune to give Equatorial Guinea a glimmer of hope at 3-1 down.

The goal, however, spurred South Africa on and they upped the tempo, once more exerting pressure on their opponents. It quickly became clear that the Guineans were satisfied with a 3-1 defeat as they sought to prevent any further Bafana Bafana goals.

However, two minutes into extra time Equatorial Guinea was unlucky not to be rewarded with a second goal when Juan Epitie netted but was ruled offsides; he was definitely onsides.

A minute later Bafana Bafana finished on a high. Delron Buckley steered in a corner and Dikgacoi was on the end of it to net his second goal of the game and put an exclamation mark on a solid victory for the home team.

Relieved

SA coach Santana was openly relieved to have got his first win under the belt; he celebrated the victory with high gives with fans and hugs from his coaching staff and the stewards.

At the post-match press conference, Santana pronounced himself "very happy".

He also praised the efforts of striker Terror Fanteni, saying he showed some good ideas and created problems for the opposition defenders.

Victories are far and away the most effective means of getting South African soccer supporters behind the national team and Santana will have made lots of friends after Bafana Bafana's big win.