South Africa fired blanks in their opening Afcon qualifier against Gambia, again highlighting Bafana’s glaring weakness.
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Durban – South Africa’s goalless draw in their opening Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against the tiny nation of Gambia left them on the back foot and with a major scoring riddle to solve.
Bafana Bafana coach Ephraim Mashaba stood by his team selection even though Saturday’s stalemate extended their recent poor scoring form.
South Africa fired blanks in the Cosafa Cup with goalless draws against Malawi and Botswana to bow out early from the regional competition last month.
In the build-up to that event the side also failed to hit the back of the net against Lesotho.
Saturday night Mashaba fielded Thamsanqa Gabuza, who only trained once with the squad after he arrived as a late replacement for Tokelo Rantie, who failed to show up because of his wedding.
The coach said he had to wait on Rantie because the country had no other strikers like the England-based professional.
“Rantie is the only player in South Africa who can harass defenders in front and behind, and he can create chances to score by himself,” said Mashaba after the game at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Nevertheless Mashaba’s preference for rookie First Division campaigners such as Siphelele Ntshangase and Gift Motupa ahead of experienced pros such as Kermit Erasmus, Bernard Parker and Lehlohonolo Majoro would have raised eyebrows.
Ntshangase and Motupa are support strikers at best, and the former delivered in that role when he replaced Thulani Serero midway through the second half against the Scorpions.
However his poor finishing cost South Africa the win. With two minutes left on the clock he had a great chance one-on-one with the Gambian goalie but curled a strike wide.
The Scorpions had little sting of their own up front but promised to be much stronger as the qualifiers progressed, particularly because they would have more time to prepare for the next round in early September when they host Cameroon in Banjul.
Their new Swiss coach Raoul Savoy, appointed last month, fielded a new-look side put together with players from the Gambian diaspora. Many of them trained together for the first time when they camped in Uganda and recorded a 1-1 draw against the Cranes.
“We’re not thinking of qualifying. But imagine if this team trains properly for about 10 days ...” said Savoy.
“If we win against Cameroon at home then we can do something. In football there are no small games or small teams. We did well to get a point; we’re not small, and we have got some top players in Europe,” he added.
In contrast South Africa has a thriving league and the national team has facilities that are the envy of many countries on the continent.
Yet the goal-scoring issue has plagued all the recent national coaches from Pitso Mosimane, through Gordon Igesund, to Mashaba.
“We need to work on our scoring, nothing else. We played good football otherwise,” insisted Mashaba.
“As long as we talk of grooming strikers at Bafana we’ll go nowhere.
“The national team is not development level; there’s no time to make players. We need players to come and perform, that’s all.
“The 16 PSL teams are talking of a goal-scoring problem, and now you expect the national team, which gets together for four days, to solve the scoring problem. We can only guide the players on what we want at national team level,” said Mashaba.
Whatever the solutions are, Mashaba’s next qualifier away to Mauritania is a “must-win” game because only the group winners qualify for the 2017 Afcon in Gabon.
South Africa are in Cape Town where they host Angola in a friendly tomorrow afternoon.
The only doubtful player is midfielder Oupa Manyisa who injured his leg against Gambia. - The Star
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