Sport24 columnist George Dearnaley (File)

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Comment: George Dearnaley

Jaysus! I’ve got to admit I got it horribly wrong with my prediction. I never saw the red card coming and I never saw the French playing so badly and I really never saw Bafana playing so well! So please forgive me if I gush, but I was really proud of them yesterday. Well, at least for the first hour of the match.

I’m not sure it was a red card for Yoann Gourcuff, but it was a great decision anyway and I cheered, along with the hundreds of Bafana supporters that I was watching with. You would have been proud. We all stood up and sang the national anthem together – there were a bunch of people taking photos of us – they couldn’t believe that some whities know all the words!

When Bongani Khumalo scored our first we all went mental! It was brilliant, even a bunch of English supporters were cheering with us. No one mentioned that Khumalo looked to be climbing all over the French defender… never mind! And what a difference a goal makes – we suddenly looked like the team in FIFA’s top 10 instead of the French. I’ve always said that our local players are what you call ‘confidence players’ – they need to be built up and have their egos massaged, and then they can perform. Leave the criticism at home…

We were all over them and then Katlego Mphela bundled home number two… game on. Then we heard Uruguay had scored… it was all coming true! I’m not sure what happened in the second half. For long periods it looked like we had 10 men. When Thierry Henry came on the French were galvanised and they were better for the last 20 minutes, and sadly their goal destroyed our hopes. Mphela hit the post when the score was 2-0 and there is no way we can imagine what would have happened at 3-0!

I know there are a school of people who protest when we celebrate mediocrity, but in this case, beating a top 10 team for the first time, going out with a win against the runners-up of the last Soccer World Cup final, and most importantly, showing ourselves what can be achieved with a positive attitude – imagine if we had played with the same attitude against Uruguay!

I got my prediction horribly wrong but I am very glad I was wrong. Well done MEN! You made us proud and you gave us hope for the future.
 
George Dearnaley played for Bafana in 1992/93 and was top goal scorer in SA in 1992. He is loving the World Cup but hates players who fake being injured to get other players sent off. He also thinks half the referees are rubbish. His money is on Argentina!