Down to the wire again

For a third tournament in a row as hosts, Bafana Bafana have left it to the final round of matches to determine whether they will emerge from the group stages or suffer further humiliation.

South Africa's 1-1 draw against Mali on Wednesday in the Africa Nations Championship means they now need to avoid defeat by Nigeria on Sunday to make the quarterfinals.

It's familiar territory for the South African national team.

In 2010, the World Cup hosts needed results elsewhere in their group to go their way after they beat France 2-1.

It wasn't to be and Carlos Alberto Parreira's men became the first team whose country staged the World Cup to fail to make it past the group stage.

Last year, coach Gordon Igesund left it late to book a place in the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations when Bafana came from behind to secure a 2-2 draw against Morocco in Durban.

Having had a dream start in their Chan opener against Mozambique in Group A at the weekend, the stalemate against Mali has complicated Bafana's bid to progress to the knockout phase.

"I think the two teams were quite evenly matched. We just didn't put the ball in the back of the net when we had our chances, and that's football for you," said Igesund, as he reflected on points dropped.

"Every team now has to go out there and try to get to a [positive] result and that makes it tough. It's not a light switch to just turn on. We can't win every game. It's tough out there. Even if we need a draw against Nigeria we are ready to play for a win," Igesund said.

The coach came under fire for bringing on a defensive midfielder to replace a striker minutes after Bafana allowed Mali back in with an equaliser 10 minutes into the second half. Asavela Mbekile replaced Edward Manqele, leaving Bernard Parker as the lone ranger upfront to search for the winner.

Igesund had instead opted to add a third anchorman, much to the fans' disbelief.

"We were ready to make the change before the goal was scored because their No8 [Cheick Doumbia] was causing problems. But the fourth official delayed the substitution," Igesund said.

"Asavela did what we asked of him, and the plan was to get Matthew [Pattison] to push a little bit forward and be more creative. After the change, their No8 stopped playing and we were able to get Matthew to go behind the striker because we could see what he could do with his distribution."

Though a point will be enough to see Bafana through to the quarterfinals, the coach should not underestimate Nigeria.

The African champions appeared poorly prepared for this tournament in their opener against Mali last week, when they were convincingly beaten 2-1. But they beat Mozambique 4-2 on Wednesday.

Mark Gleeson reports that a goal after just 50 seconds had Morocco on their way to victory in the second game in Group B at Athlone Stadium last night but Burkina Faso scored two minutes from the end to ensure a 1-1 draw and keep alive their hopes.

Zimbabwe continued to look the most impressive side in Group B but are still to score a goal and could yet finish outside the placings. A second successive goalless draw, this time against Uganda in the first match last night, left Ian Gorowa's side in some peril with a difficult last group game to come next week.