Ndizani Bafana-Bafana Ndizani!
Let’s salute our national football team for putting our country back on the footballing map after such a long time.
Bafana Bafana has struggled for so long to the point that no one cared about them when they played. What they did during the recently concluded African Cup of Nations (Afcon) is nothing short of a miracle. No one gave them a chance to progress to the knockout stages.
We need to humble ourselves and apologise to coach Hugo Broos and his charges for what we said to them, particularly Broos who was ridiculed when he assumed the position. We called him names when he gave us his assessment of our players and the standard of our football.
Bafana-Bafana went to the tournament as underdogs and returned as heroes. No one gave them a chance. The media had written them off.
With the thin squad that we had, mainly dominated by the local players, we managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat, by making it to the last four of this African splendour.
Their biggest moment in the tournament was without a doubt when they beat the continent’s top side Morocco by two goals to nil in the last 16 stage.
They played well as a team. They were well organised and able to knock around the ball, something we have missed in the team.
The boys were a marvel to watch. They brought back the good memories of the late 90s.
We salute Broos for his magic. The South African Football Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordan must renew Broos’s contract. He did a great job.
Even though we didn’t get the gold, the awards that we received say it all. While this is a team sport, a special mention goes to captain fantastic, Ronwen Williams for his acrobatics during the month-long tournament.
Following the end of the tournament in Ivory Coast, Bafana-Bafana has since climbed up to the third on rankings in the continent from 12.
They are sure to jump up on the Fifa rankings as well.
However, there’s room for improvement, especially in the front row. We need to boost our attacking prowess and have more sting in front of the poles, but credit must be given to the boys and Oupa Broos.