• Home
• | Terms & conditions
• | Contact us
• | RSS

Chile too hot for Bafana

Brad Morgan

12 February 2009

After five wins on the trot, Bafana Bafana were beaten 2-0 by Chile in an international friendly played in Polokwane on Wednesday night. South Africa coach Joel Santana admitted after the contest that the result was not a surprise to him.

The Brazilian said the South Americans had clearly come to South Africa to win. He said they arrived early and prepared well for the game.

Looking ahead, Santana said: "It was good preparation for our games to come against Norway and Portugal."

Beat world number two

That may be so, but while the Norwegians are ranked 56th by Fifa, some 25 places below Chile, they were in impressive winning form on Wednesday, winning 1-0 against world number two Germany away from home.

Portugal, after Norway, will be the highest ranked team Bafana Bafana has faced in a very long time; they currently occupy 12th spot in the Fifa World Rankings.

What will Santana need to work on with his charges for the upcoming games? The answer to that question is to be found in his analysis of the match against Chile.

'They marked us very well'

He said: "They marked us very well, which made it difficult to attack, but despite that I thought the game was very balanced, and we had an equal number of chances in the match.

"We made the midfield stronger in the second half and had our chances to equalise. It is disappointing to lose, but these are the games we need to play in order to improve."

Santana may have been a little too optimistic in his view of the contest, for the visitors were better than Bafana in most departments, indicating that a lot of work remains to be done before the Confederations Cup in June; the difference of 39 places between the teams in the Fifa World Rankings was evident.

Warning signs

After only five minutes of the game, the warnings signs were there that the Chileans would offer a far stiffer test than Bafana had faced in their last outing, when they beat Zambia 1-0. Mark Gonzalez almost worked his way into a goal-scoring position, but Lefa Tsutsulupa finally cleared the danger.

Shortly after that, Siphiwe Tshabalala upended Alexis Sanchez on the edge of the box, leading to a free-kick for the visitors. Rodrigo Tello was wide of the mark with his shot.

As the contest started to take shape, Chile enjoyed the better quality possession. Yet Calvin Marlin, the South African goalkeeper, remained untested as Atruro Vidal blasted wide after 15 minutes.

Easy save

Teko Modise found the target for Bafana with free-kick, but his effort was comfortably dealt with by Claudio Bravo in the Chilean goal.

There was some tough tackling happening in the midfield, and the referee finally showed a yellow card to Jorge Valdivia for a wild challenge after 20 minutes.

La Roja, as the Chileans are known, took control of the midfield and continued to create space to shoot, but their shots lacked direction; Sanchez was both high and wide with a shot in the 25th minute.

Oohs and aahs

Tsutsulupa drew some "oohs" and "aahs" from the Bafana Bafana supporters with a shot from distance that passed narrowly over the top of the crossbar, but the momentum was clearly with Chile, who were making the home team work hard in defence with their assured passing.

Mauricio Isla was played in by Sanchez, but his shot was directly into the arms of Marlin.

Siboniso Gaxa picked out Siyabonga Nkosi with a cross, but Nkosi's header was directly at Bravo. A number of opportunities followed in quick succession for Bafana, with Nkosi and Benni McCarthy causing the South Americans some problems.

Valdivia strikes

However, on the stroke of half-time, Chile took the lead. Tsepo Masilela managed to half clear a cross by Gonzalez and Valdivia picked up the ball on the edge of the area and drilled it like a missile past the helpless Marlin to put his side ahead at the break.

Santana moved to shore up South Africa's midfield by introducing Lance Davids immediately after the break, while Bernard Parker replaced Nkosi up front.

Bafana looked more dangerous and attacked. Davids had a shot blocked and Parker, too, had his strike blocked.

Rattled the woodwork

Ten minutes into the second period, McCarthy rattled the Chilean woodwork. After he had fired just wide from 25 metres, the Blackburn Rovers' striker was set up by a deflected save from a shot from Parker, but the goalpost stopped his effort and Kagiso Dikgacoi's follow-up was blocked.

The Chileans set about restoring some structure to the game by slowing it down, and it worked for them.

South African skipper Aaron Mokoena was yellow-carded after he snuffed out a potentially dangerous attack by the visitors with a foul, and Matias Fernandez, on for the goal scorer Valdivia, fired just over Marlin's crossbar.

Two-goal lead

With 67 minutes played, Chile doubled their lead. Alexis Sanchez caught the South African defence out and managed to round the defenders before beating Marlin with a shot into the far corner of the net. His goal, essentially, ended the game as a contest.

The change in the intensity of the match was almost immediate as Chile took to slowing it down and passing the ball about, almost as if the object was simply passing practice.

Santana made a couple of late substitutions, sending on Macbeth Sibaya for Dikgacoi and Mabhuti Khenyeza for McCarthy.

A faint glimmer of hope

There was a faint glimmer of hope for South Africa when Tsepo Masilela came close to snatching a consolation goal in the 82 minute after he was sent clear. However, a desperate tackle kept a clean sheet for the South Americans.

Surprise Moriri replaced Tshabalala and Elrio van Heerden took over from Modise with only six minutes remaining, but there was still no give in the Chilean ranks.

When the final whistle sounded, it brought the curtain down on the disappointing outing for Bafana Bafana.

More had been expected

More had been expected of the team after five successive victories. The fact that they had come up well short of the standard required against the best team they had faced in a long time was concerning.

Next up for Bafana is a friendly against Norway at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg on 28 March.