Sport

Bafana win away from home at last

Brad Morgan

13 October 2008

Bafana Bafana brought a disappointing African Nations Cup qualifying campaign to a positive end when they beat Equatorial Guinea 1-0 in their final qualifying game in Malabo on the weekend. It was almost two years to the day since South Africa last won an international away from home.

The victory, any victory for that matter, would have come as a relief to the players and to coach Joel Santana. He was pleased with the result and suggested that the starting line-up from the game in Malabo would likely be retained for Wednesday's challenging friendly against Ghana in Bloemfontein.

Judging by another comment made by Santana, it seems he has identified a starting eleven that he is comfortable with; he said: "What (also) helped us is that this is largely the same Bafana Bafana team that played against Australia and Nigeria, and I believe that this is helping the players to understand each other."

'Played from the heart'

The Brazilian complimented the players on their spirit, saying: "The heat was unbearable, the humidity was high, and the pitch was unplayable, but the players went in there and played from the heart against these challenges. That is something that really touched me."

The pitch was sub-standard and the conditions physically testing, but Santana said his players fought through the challenges. "It was a difficult game because the players could not play their normal game as they enjoy their football on the ground, but the bumpy pitch didn't make it easy," he explained.

"The poor pitch, made worse by overnight rains, saw the light-bodied players like Siphiwe Tshabalala, Teko Modise and Siyabonga Nkosi falling a lot because of the slippery surface. As a result of the poor pitch, we committed about five fouls that could have easily seen us conceding.

Control

"We managed to control the game from the start, though, and the early goal helped us to ease off the pressure and allow us to get used to the pitch conditions. Throughout the opening half, we managed to hold them off very well and the opposition only managed one ball to break through dangerously."

Siphiwe Tshabalala, with only his second goal in 21 internationals, struck the winner in the 17th minute. It was an easy tap-in after the goalkeeper failed to hold on to a cross from Benni McCarthy.

The South African victory lifted Bafana Bafana to second in the final group standings, a massive 11 points behind the group winners Nigeria.

Ghana

It was also a second win in succession for Santana's men, and a good result on Wednesday against Ghana – ranked 25th to Bafana's 85th in the Fifa world rankings – would go a long way towards restoring the fans faith in the South African national side and in coach Santana.

The Ghanaians were also in action over the weekend, beating South Africa's neighbours, Lesotho, comfortably by three goals to nil.