Bafana share spoils

Solid performance from SA but, once again, they miss scoring opportunities, writes Kgomotso Mokoena in Port Elizabeth

South Africa (0) 1 - Ivory Coast (1) 1

WHILE it is always difficult to judge a team's progress in friendly matches, Bafana Bafana raised their game and put up a spirited performance against an Ivory Coast side teeming with world superstars.

South Africa needed a win after the embarrassing shenanigans in Mpumalanga. Yesterday, they played with more vigour and went in search of goals until the final whistle.

Beating the star-studded Ivory Coast would have been a great public-relations exercise but it was not to be as goals again proved as scarce as Bafana qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations. The Nelson Mandela Challenge Trophy will be shared after the draw.

The proceedings were too emotional and heated for under- pressure coach Pitso Mosimane, the fans and Katlego "Killer" Mphela. After equalising, Mphela lost his cool and snarled at the fans who were booing and giving them a hard time. Mosimane and his assistant Jairo Leal reprimanded him.

Former colleague Carlos Amato once said that watching a team that plays like Bafana is like watching soft porn - plenty of foreplay and no penetration. A similar story happened yesterday as they made plenty of chances but failed to snatch the winner.

The danger is that Bafana could be falling into the trap of the Carlos Aberto Parreira era.

After taking over, Mosimane once told the Sunday Times that under Parreira they played beautifully but sideways all the time.

"It was good to play the No1 team in Africa. We must not settle for playing the likes of Lesotho, Djibouti or Mauritius. We must show we can play against Ghana, Egypt and Ivory Coast," said Mosimane after the match.

"We could have won it in the last 15 minutes but it was the old story of missing chances. We need to score goals and if there's a player in the PSL who can do that give me his name because if Mphela does not look like scoring we do not score at all. My job is to organise the team, come with formations and strategies. But putting the ball into the net is the strikers' job," he said.

Mosimane was happy with the return of his key players after injuries. "We look better when Steven Pienaar, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Reneilwe Letsholonyane and Tsepo Masilela are playing. They give us a good structure and their experience is vital."

The Ivorians should be lauded for bringing their A-team. They are a marvel to watch and will go into the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations as tournament favourites, especially with big guns Egypt, Cameroon and Nigeria having not qualified.

Pienaar was full of beans and threatened whenever he touched the ball. He had some nice touches with young Daylon Claasen who was bulldozed off the park by the Ivorian bodybuilders-cum-footballers. Mphela and Letsholonyane also played well. Gaxa gave the visitors the lead with an own goal and Mphela equalised with a world-class free-kick.