Bafana win on the Islands
Brad Morgan
6 June 2005
Battling a physical Cape Verde Islands team and a terrible pitch, Bafana Bafana came through with a vital 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over the islanders on Saturday to move three points clear at the top of Africa Group Two.
It was a hard-fought contest, but in the end South Africa emerged with all three points on offer, becoming the first team to win in Praia during the World Cup qualifying competition.
Relying more on industry and teamwork than skill - which was negated by the pitch - Bafana Bafana netted two early goals to surge into the lead.
Scored against the run of play
From the start Stuart Baxter's charges were pushed onto the defensive but, after weathering a number of shots on goal and corners, South Africa took the lead against the run of play when they netted with their first attack of the game.
Steven Pienaar set things rolling with a nice bit of skill before finding Benedict Vilakazi.
Vilikazi then fed Delron Buckley, who set the goal up with a pin-point cross to Benni McCarthy. The Porto striker glanced the ball home with the head to give SA a valuable advantage.
Two minutes later Buckley struck South Africa's second goal. Mbulelo Mabizela found the Borussia Dortmund star with a superb pass, which Buckley controlled nicely before blasting past Cape Verde Islands' goalkeeper Nelson Vega.
Missed chance
The home side, however, refused to buckle under, continuing to press hard against the South African side. They should have pulled one back after 26 minutes, but Cafu missed a clear-cut chance.
After the break, Bafana again came under early pressure from the islanders, but "Old John" Mabizela, given an opportunity in the midfield in place of the missing Quinton Fortune, showed off his excellent defensive qualities by closing down the offensive efforts of the home side.
With 20 minutes to go, however, Cape Verde
Islands hit the crossbar from a strike by Mateus. A hectic goalmouth scramble followed, with South African goalkeeper Hans Vonk finally managing to gather the ball.
With only 13 minutes to play, though, the home side finally cracked the South African defences. Duka set up striker Cafu for a volley from close range to ensure that the closing minutes of the contest would not be easy ones for Bafana Bafana.
No more breakthroughs
SA coach Baxter responded by bringing on three substitutes in the final five minutes as the islanders threw everything at captain Aaron Mokoena and company, but they couldn't effect another breakthrough and South Africa claimed a hugely important 2-1 victory away from home.
On the negative side, goal scorer Benni McCarthy was yellow-carded in the 74th minute for a hand ball. It was his second yellow card of the qualifying campaign, which means he will now miss Bafana's next World Cup clash, against Ghana on 18
June in Johannesburg.
On the positive side, coach Baxter says Shaun Bartlett and Quinton Fortune will be back in the line-up for the showdown against the Black Stars. Sibusiso Zuma and Bradley Carnell remain doubtful, however.
After the Ghana game, only two more qualifying matches remain, against Burkina Faso on 2 September and against the Democratic Republic of Congo on 7 October.
With seven of the 10 qualifying matches played, South Africa are three points clear of the DRC and Ghana.
AFRICA GROUP TWO QUALIFYING STANDINGS
South Africa 7 5 0 2 9 7 15
DR Congo 7 3 3 1 10 5 12
Ghana 7 3 3 1 9 4 12
Cape Verde Islands 7 3 1 3 7 8 10
Burkina Faso 7 2 0 5 7 10 6
Uganda 7 1 1 5 3 11 4
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