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Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – Gone: the first host nation to fail to make a World Cup second round. But forgotten? Disgraced, even? Most definitely not.
That was South Africa’s extremely satisfactory state of affairs as they bowed out of the tournament with valour in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, deserved winners against 1998 champions and 2006 finalists France.
Just in itself, that is a momentous achievement, French camp turmoil or not. We must not lightly dismiss that.
In fact, roll back the clock several months to when the draw was made, and Bafana were pitted against three teams streets ahead of them on the world rankings.
So featureless and inept did the national team look at that point that critics were perfectly entitled to suggest they might be in danger of not earning a solitary point in Group A.
Well, Aaron Mokoena’s outfit went well better than that, eclipsing the supposed European power into third place and only being eliminated on a three-goal inferiority basis to the other team to finish with them on four points, Mexico.
To put it in simplest terms, Bafana had two sprightly games and one clear-cut dud (against Uruguay) at this World Cup, and they have largely won the hearts of the country as a result – across our various communities.
It is true that France, already at sixes and sevens on their unhappy safari, suffered a ghastly blow under the circumstances with the sending-off (debatable, perhaps, but hardly a scandalous call) of Yoann Gourcuff as early as the 26th minute.
But South Africa, pleasingly, had already got an encouraging foothold on proceedings and led 1-0 courtesy of central defender Bongani Khumalo’s strong leap at the far post to meet a deep, swirling corner kick from Siphiwe Tshabalala.
It was just the tonic Bafana, sporting a massively re-arranged midfield and Bernard Parker to provide beneficial aid to Katlego Mphela up front, needed.
Indeed, when they entered the half-time tunnel 2-0 to the good and presumably quickly aware that there had been a goal in the other group game at the Royal Bafokeng, their Mission Impossible - winning by a genuine bundle - was beginning to look not quite the stuff of fantasy.
But the French “corpse” did retain some sort of pulse, with Franck Ribery suddenly getting his game together to a good degree, and when Florent Malouda pulled one back with 20 minutes to go it was really just about holding on for the pride-restoring Bafana victory.
It was only South Africa’s second ever win in a World Cup tournament, remember, and certainly their biggest scalp at the blue-chip event.
There was great snap and movement about Bafana on this occasion, unlike at Loftus where they had seemed listless, timid and wholly unimaginative against Uruguay.
With a bit of luck they might have prevailed by a wider margin in Bloemfontein and really made Mexico sweat late in their match at Rustenburg before qualifying despite the lone-goal reverse to the same Uruguayans.
Mphela looked like a distinguished greyhound in this game, the tall and athletic striker warranting his goal despite it being a scrambled effort and coming within a whisker of a second when he really ought to have netted soon after the break.
The engines of players like Steven Pienaar and Tshabalala were back purring again, too, while lanky Khumalo thoroughly atoned at the back, I thought, for his traumatic night against the wiles of Diego Forlan and company days earlier.
Mokoena was a muscular defensive presence too – though I hope he saw no need to respond especially to a wacko missive from the ANC Youth League this week questioning his game and leadership.
The entire South African defensive unit deserve laurels for giving Moeneeb Josephs, the goalkeeper deputising for suspended Itumeleng Khune, a surprisingly quiet outing.
Cautiously, I believe we can sum up Bafana’s World Cup - and a few notable friendly wins in the lead-up - by suggesting there is “progress” at the very least in their quest to claw back to much higher rungs on the global ladder.
A good start on that intended northward curve would be to perk up their performance on the continent: they do look capable of ensuring they stave off the ignominy henceforth of failing to make the African Nations Cup cut.
Several of the Bafana players have graduated at the World Cup to near-household names in parts of our country where they were previously unheralded, and it would be good if continued momentum is ensured by South Africa playing more matches at venues where they have previously been seen all too seldom.
Bafana may have exited, stage left, but at least South Africans may continue to wear their colours with sustained pride and simply revel in what’s left of this grandest of global sports bashes …
Cape Town – Gone: the first host nation to fail to make a World Cup second round. But forgotten? Disgraced, even? Most definitely not.
That was South Africa’s extremely satisfactory state of affairs as they bowed out of the tournament with valour in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, deserved winners against 1998 champions and 2006 finalists France.
Just in itself, that is a momentous achievement, French camp turmoil or not. We must not lightly dismiss that.
In fact, roll back the clock several months to when the draw was made, and Bafana were pitted against three teams streets ahead of them on the world rankings.
So featureless and inept did the national team look at that point that critics were perfectly entitled to suggest they might be in danger of not earning a solitary point in Group A.
Well, Aaron Mokoena’s outfit went well better than that, eclipsing the supposed European power into third place and only being eliminated on a three-goal inferiority basis to the other team to finish with them on four points, Mexico.
To put it in simplest terms, Bafana had two sprightly games and one clear-cut dud (against Uruguay) at this World Cup, and they have largely won the hearts of the country as a result – across our various communities.
It is true that France, already at sixes and sevens on their unhappy safari, suffered a ghastly blow under the circumstances with the sending-off (debatable, perhaps, but hardly a scandalous call) of Yoann Gourcuff as early as the 26th minute.
But South Africa, pleasingly, had already got an encouraging foothold on proceedings and led 1-0 courtesy of central defender Bongani Khumalo’s strong leap at the far post to meet a deep, swirling corner kick from Siphiwe Tshabalala.
It was just the tonic Bafana, sporting a massively re-arranged midfield and Bernard Parker to provide beneficial aid to Katlego Mphela up front, needed.
Indeed, when they entered the half-time tunnel 2-0 to the good and presumably quickly aware that there had been a goal in the other group game at the Royal Bafokeng, their Mission Impossible - winning by a genuine bundle - was beginning to look not quite the stuff of fantasy.
But the French “corpse” did retain some sort of pulse, with Franck Ribery suddenly getting his game together to a good degree, and when Florent Malouda pulled one back with 20 minutes to go it was really just about holding on for the pride-restoring Bafana victory.
It was only South Africa’s second ever win in a World Cup tournament, remember, and certainly their biggest scalp at the blue-chip event.
There was great snap and movement about Bafana on this occasion, unlike at Loftus where they had seemed listless, timid and wholly unimaginative against Uruguay.
With a bit of luck they might have prevailed by a wider margin in Bloemfontein and really made Mexico sweat late in their match at Rustenburg before qualifying despite the lone-goal reverse to the same Uruguayans.
Mphela looked like a distinguished greyhound in this game, the tall and athletic striker warranting his goal despite it being a scrambled effort and coming within a whisker of a second when he really ought to have netted soon after the break.
The engines of players like Steven Pienaar and Tshabalala were back purring again, too, while lanky Khumalo thoroughly atoned at the back, I thought, for his traumatic night against the wiles of Diego Forlan and company days earlier.
Mokoena was a muscular defensive presence too – though I hope he saw no need to respond especially to a wacko missive from the ANC Youth League this week questioning his game and leadership.
The entire South African defensive unit deserve laurels for giving Moeneeb Josephs, the goalkeeper deputising for suspended Itumeleng Khune, a surprisingly quiet outing.
Cautiously, I believe we can sum up Bafana’s World Cup - and a few notable friendly wins in the lead-up - by suggesting there is “progress” at the very least in their quest to claw back to much higher rungs on the global ladder.
A good start on that intended northward curve would be to perk up their performance on the continent: they do look capable of ensuring they stave off the ignominy henceforth of failing to make the African Nations Cup cut.
Several of the Bafana players have graduated at the World Cup to near-household names in parts of our country where they were previously unheralded, and it would be good if continued momentum is ensured by South Africa playing more matches at venues where they have previously been seen all too seldom.
Bafana may have exited, stage left, but at least South Africans may continue to wear their colours with sustained pride and simply revel in what’s left of this grandest of global sports bashes …
