Bafana impress in Zambian win
9 October 2006
There's a saying about the wheel turning ... Well, it turned for Aaron Mokoena in Lusaka on Sunday as he returned to the Bafana Bafana line-up as captain, and scored the only goal in a crucial African Nations Cup 2008 qualifier for South Africa.
The South African national football team has seen its international ranking slide recently, and entering Sunday's game against the Zambians they were definite underdogs, ranked seventy-first by Fifa to Zambia's fifty-fifth. Also, the match was away from home.
Pitso Mosimane and Khabo Zondo were in charge of Bafana Bafana, but in the stands was South Africa's coach-in-waiting, Carlos Alberto Parreira, along with his assistant Jairo Leal, and they must have been pleased with the heart and style exhibited by South Africa - and by the 1-0 scoreline.
Goal scoring curse
The curse of South Africa's national team in recent games has been its inability to score goals, and
with Benni McCarthy, who has made an impressive start to his English Premier League career with Blackburn Rovers, not available, it was left to the striker's clubmate, Mokoena, to make the difference in the contest.
Mokoena was controversially left out of South Africa's team at the 2006 African Cup of Nations after a fall-out with stand-in coach Ted Dumitru. Restored to the SA side, and also to the captaincy, the defender chose the ideal time to net his first goal for his country.
Despite a sub-standard pitch, Bafana Bafana turned in their best performance for quite some time, showing off excellent commitment and skills.
There were still enough misses in front of goal to be of concern, but the side's overall showing was encouraging.
The goal
Mokoena's goal came from a free kick taken by Delron Buckley just short of the half-hour. The SA skipper rose impressively to meet the ball and power it into the Zambian
net.
Leading from the front, he not only struck with the game's only goal, but also cut a dominant figure on defence, marshalling the team well from the back. His example worked wonders as the rest of the team pulled their weight too.
Borussia Dortmund's Steven Pienaar turned in a top class showing in the midfield, displaying great battling skills to go along with his superb passing ability.
Alongside him, Siyabonga Nkosi worked well with Pienaar, helping South Africa to find cohesion in the midfield.
Three clean sheets
And at the back, in the last line of defence, Rowen Fernandez stood strong, pulling off a couple of classy saves, including one right before time to deny former Kaizer Chiefs' striker Collins Mbesuma a goal that would have pulled Zambia level. It was Fernandez' third clean sheet in succession.
The victory would surely have brought a smile to Bafana Bafana fans' faces because so often they have been let
down by the team when expectations were high against lower-rated opponents. This time, playing as underdogs, South Africa achieved a good win in a difficult environment.
Most importantly, the win lifted South Africa to the top of African Cup of Nations qualifying group 11.
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