Bafana limp into Afcon finals
Brad Morgan
10 September 2007
Needing only to avoid a defeat against Zambia by less than three goals, Bafana Bafana limped into the finals of the African Cup of Nations in Ghana in 2008 when they struggled to a 3-1 defeat against Zambia on home soil.
It was a shockingly poor showing from South Africa, described as "unthinkable" by coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Heading into the contest, it appeared a given that Bafana would qualify top of their group and ease their way through to the finals of the competition, but only 20 minutes into the game the home team found itself trailing 3-0 and on the verge of being eliminated.
Thankfully, for the local supporters, a goal from Benni McCarthy early in the second half reduced the deficit to two goals.
Zambia top, SA second
The 3-1 loss, however, meant Zambia topped the group and South Africa qualified as one of the three best-placed teams to finish second in their qualifying
groups.
"We made Zambia's life very easy and gifted them the goals," said Parreira.
"When you play for your country these things should not happen; you must start the game with full focus. International players do not make such mistakes. We gave the match to them."
The shocking avalanche of early goals came as a complete surprise. In five previous qualifying outings, Bafana Bafana had conceded only one goal. In only 20 minutes in Cape Town, Chipolopolo breached the South Africans' defences three times.
Both Zambia and South Africa finished with 11 points and a positive goal difference of six, but the Zambians ended top of then standings because of a better head-to-head record against Bafana Bafana.
Hat-trick
The man who did the damage was former Jomo Cosmos striker Christopher Katongo, now with Danish club Brondby, who notched a hat-trick in next to no time.
His first goal came after nine minutes when he easily beat
goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez after an error by MacBeth Sibaya.
Ten minutes later, the South African fans were stunned when Chipolopolo notched their second goal.
Papi Zothwane lost possession in midfield and captain Aaron Mokoena was forced into making a sliding tackle. His effort rebounded kindly for Isaac Chansa and the former Orlando Pirates' midfielder crossed beautifully for Katongo to angle the ball into the South African goal.
Only a minute later, disbelief set in as the striker completed his hat-trick. It was all too easy as Katongo, unmarked in the box, headed home to put Chipolopolo 3-0 up.
Good work undone
Five matches of good solid play – over 540 minutes – looked as if it they were all going to be undone by 20 minutes of poor play by Bafana Bafana, and the dream of reaching the African Cup of Nations final was drifting away.
Zothwane, who was having a nightmare in midfield, lasted until the half-hour mark only
before Parreira pulled the plug and sent on Teko Modise in his place.
Afterwards, Parreira explained it isn't his style to make such earlier changes, but Zothwane's bad day wasn’t showing any signs of improving and the coach needed to do something about it.
At halftime, Parreira admitted to throwing his toys – literally. Chairs and water bottles were sent flying as the coach vented his wrath on the players. Quite frankfully, the majority of Bafana Bafana fans would surely have felt his temper tantrum was justified; it had been a ridiculously poor opening 45 minutes from South Africa.
McCarthy replies
After the break, McCarthy, playing his first match for Bafana Bafana in 19 months, gave South Africa something to smile about when he reduced the deficit to two goals by heading home a Surprise Moriri cross in the 49th minute.
The goal was McCarthy's 29th for Bafana Bafana, pulling him into a tie as South Africa's top international
goal scorer of all time with Shaun Bartlett.
With less than 15 minutes to go, the effort that had gone into wiping out the three-goal deficit was almost undone when former Kaizer Chiefs' striker Collins Mbesuma spurned a gilt-edged opportunity to increase Zambia's lead. Had that goal gone in, South Africa's path to Ghana would have become murkier.
The missed chance came at a time when Bafana Bafana should have been pressuring the Zambians after Chansa was dismissed for a second bookable offence. However, the home side was unable to take advantage of its numerical superiority and failed to add to the goal scored by McCarthy.
'Our worst performance'
"I'm only sorry that Benni's return coincided with our worst performance," commented coach Parreira.
Ultimately, it was a case of mission accomplished for Bafana Bafana, but instead of sailing in proudly through the front door, they sneaked in through the back door with a shocking
performance.
South Africa has an opportunity to make amends against Uruguay in a friendly in Johannesburg on Wednesday. No doubt, many of the players will be eager to show they are capable of far better things.
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