It's a massive week for South African football. Despite slipping down the Fifa rankings yet again (we are now 12th in Africa and 67th in the world), Bafana have secured a massive game against Nigeria, a team brimming with superstars and the one country in Africa who don't recognise our only African Cup of Nations triumph in '96 because they weren't there.
If ever there was a chance to show them just how powerful we are on home soil, this is it. Nigeria is consistently a top 10 country in Africa and is usually a lot higher up the Fifa totem pole in the world rankings than we are, and so Gordon Igesund will face a real test. In fact, if he gets it wrong and if the players are not very much up for this game, Nigeria has the firepower to punish Bafana. That said, I'm sure we will give a good account of ourselves. We usually raise our game for the big ones.
Which is why I constantly get asked by friends and football fans, why is South Africa out of the top 10 in Africa? How can we boast about being among the top 10 leagues in the world in terms of sponsorship money but not performance? How is it that other established leagues in world football like the Portuguese league are so impressed with how the PSL is run that they want to learn from us and take certain aspects of our model and adopt it?
All these positives, and yet our national side and our club teams are so low down in the African and world football pecking order. It's a fascinating conundrum really because you'd think we would have got better, not worse since 1996 when you consider the improved standard of our league, the onset of top class youth academies in South Africa and most, if not all, of our coaches now having coaching licences and qualifications of some sort. Not forgetting how much money Safa has been given since 1996, and the considerable amounts they claim to have put towards youth development. Yet, further and further we slip into footballing oblivion and obscurity.
I have always claimed that on our day, our best 11 footballers can hang with any national team in the world. We have shown that against teams like Spain and more recently against a resurgent Brazil, but then I realise that maybe that is nothing more than small team mentality. We do what any minnow in world football does when coming up against top opposition, be it at club or national level. We lift ourselves for 90 minutes, play at our full potential, only to slip back into mediocrity for our next game against a so-called smaller opposition team.
So how do we change it? How do we go from living with Brazil and Spain and more than likely with Nigeria today (Wednesday) and then take those performances and dominate against smaller teams, like Botswana, Lesotho or Zimbabwe. How do we become consistently dominant and establish a culture of winning? How do Pirates go from beating Al Ahly 3-0 in Egypt and then slip to a 1-0 defeat to a less than settled AmaZulu team just a few days later?
The one mantra that Peter du Toit has at Soccer-Laduma is, "Planning, planning, planning, preparation, preparation, preparation." And if there is one thing missing right now in South African soccer, I would say there seems to be a distinct lack of that in certain areas.
Mamelodi Sundowns going to Ghana for preseason, great. But did you see the grass they trained on? Now coaches may say it's thick like that because we want to load the legs of the players etc. But come on now, Sundowns have a culture of playing the ball on the ground and keeping possession. How do you practise that on a cabbage patch? You don't see Barcelona or Man United training on sub par pitches in preparation to play on perfect pitches.
That mentality is right up there with, "Our players from the townships should have a great first touch because they play on such bumpy pitches in the townships that on a proper pitch they will be so good." Utter rubbish. Playing on a bad pitch when you are young forces you to keep your head down and therefore not know what is going on around you. It's an almost impossible habit to break, which is why the first thing the Brazilians do when recruiting young talented players from the favelas (Brazilian townships) is get them on perfect pitches.
The Bafana call-ups for the game against Nigeria, surely Gordon would have checked that Orlando Pirates had a major CAF game on and would enter into talks with Pirates long before the debacle that ensued with the in again, out again Andile Jali and Co. The PSL scheduling Pirates to play Ajax in a league game on the same day as the first semi final of the MTN8 is scheduled to be played. Where is the planning? Pirates have already had their opening league game shifted against AmaZulu - not ideal for the AmaZulu players and technical staff, and damned inconsiderate for both teams' fans who try to be there. And then the PSL CEO wants to know why fans aren't coming to the stadiums! A fixture list set in stone might help, Brand de Villiers.
So while we all must acknowledge a massive improvement in the standard of football being dished up in the PSL and a massive improvement in the way the product is packaged to the TV audience, the one thing that is still missing in South African football is a bit of planning. Add that and the world is ours for the taking...
Shapa, Clint
Follow Clint on Twitter: @SoccaClint
