Development coach and football analyst Farouk Khan has picked his three top Bafana Bafana performers following a successful Africa Cup of Nations campaign in the Ivory Coast.
Bafana finished third in the competition as Ronwen Williams saved two penalties, adding to the four he spectacularly stopped in the quarterfinal clash against Cape Verde. Williams was a star performer and scooped the best goalkeeper award at the competition, so it comes as no surprise that he is top of Khan's list.
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"Obviously Ronwen stands out as a top performer. He saved six penalties and made some phenomenal saves in the games against Morocco and Cape Verde. That's what kept us alive in the competition. Overall, he was phenomenal, not just with his saving, but the way he commanded his defence. He led by example as a captain," Khan said to the Siya crew.
Khan, a former Mamelodi Sundowns assistant coach, was impressed by another player from the club in midfielder Teboho Mokoena. A driving force in midfield, Mokoena displayed an incredible level of composure in key moments for the national team, stepping up as one of the senior players. The moments which stood out were his spectacularly taken free kick against Morocco in the last 16 and his late penalty against Nigeria in the semi-finals to send the game into extra-time.
He may have missed from the penalty spot twice in shootouts, but Mokoena's performances did not go unnoticed by Khan, who rates the player highly.
"Mokoena, for me, played a sterling role. He is a player who linked defence to attack. He was good in defensive situations. Because of the way the coach played, he needed someone like Mokoena to boss that midfield to make sure that there is stability. He gets 10 out of 10 for that," Khan said.
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A third star performer is from, you guessed it, Sundowns. Khan was impressed by how Themba Zwane controlled the tempo of the game for Bafana throughout the competition.
"Another player who stood out for me is underrated. It's Zwane. He was able to control the tempo of the game and keep possession effectively. The minute he was taken out, we would start defending a lot more because we could not maintain possession as effectively as we could when he was on the pitch. He was able to keep possession and control the rhythm."
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