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Johannesburg - Former Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates striker Benni McCarthy said he was surprised to see Tokelo Rantie stepping up to take a penalty in Bafana Bafana's 3-1 defeat to Algeria on Monday night.
As it happaned: Bafana Bafana v Algeria
The Bournemouth forward failed to seal the famous victory over the Desert Foxes after being denied by the crossbar in their opening Group C encounter at the Estadio de Mongomo.
McCarthy, 37, said he was not surprised to see the Parys-born attacker failing to convert his spot kick as he used to do so at the Pirates training sessions.
The national team’s all time leading goal-scorer also said Bafana could have gone 2-0 up if either Andile Jali or Oupa Manyisa raised their hands as they used to do at club level.
"There are four Pirates players in the Bafana squad who I used to play with," McCarthy said in the SuperSport studio afterwards.
"Out of all those four, Rantie is the only one who never took penalties.
"Even at training sessions, Rantie used to miss penalties.
"I was so surprised to see him stepping up to take that penalty.
"I was the number one penalty taker at Pirates, which means if I wasn't playing Jali or Manyisa used to step up.
"There was never a moment where you would see any player giving the responsibility to Rantie."
