Braai them like the Bushmen

Carlos Amato: Bafana must make like Bushmen tomorrow. Back in the old days, whenever a clan of original South Africans managed to whack an eland, they'd feast on the beast until they all sported Benniesque boeps.

Not even a carpaccio's worth of eland was donated to the hyenas. There were two reasons for the gluttonous all-night braai: the Bushmens' need to show their respect for their prey, and their acute awareness that hunger was never far off.

In the same way, Bafana need to show their respect for Niger by showing them no mercy. Pitso Mosimane's clan must also be acutely aware that goals will be harder to come by later in the qualifying campaign - and that success will probably hinge on goal difference. So now's the time to binge.

Niger are ranked 145 in the world, and they've never qualified for a Nations Cup. They will field one excellent striker in Bordeaux's Ouwo Moussa Maazou, but the rest are nobodies. Some will be decent nobodies, but Egypt will turn them all into human carpaccio nonetheless. And Sierra Leone - Bafana's likely rivals for second spot - may do likewise.

Bafana should know by now that goal difference is a bitch. Remember the Daejeon Dwaal? A late consolation strike against Spain at the 2002 World Cup (for 4-3 instead of 4-2) would have sent Jomo Sono's men into the knockout rounds. But instead of bombing forward, Bafana dawdled about in happy confusion, hoping for help in the other game.

The bitch was back this year, when Bafana shipped two late goals against Uruguay, in the 80th and 95th minutes, to lose 3-0. That collapse doomed the triumph over France to irrelevance.

It goes without saying that criticising with hindsight is easier than stopping Diego Forlan. But still, for what it's worth: if Uruguay had been restricted to just one goal at Loftus, and if Katlego Mphela had hit the net instead of the woodwork in Bloemfontein, then Bafana would have progressed.

The failure to qualify for Angola 2010 wasn't about goal difference - it was about CAF's horribly unfair rules (Bafana's two victories against fourth-placed Equatorial Guinea were discounted when calculating the rankings of second-placed teams, because some other groups only had three teams due to late withdrawals. Only wins and goals against third- and first-placed sides counted.)

What's bothering Pitso is how to plunder five goals against the massed defence that minnows typically deploy on their travels. Bafana's sterility against weak opposition has had more to do with poor width than poor finishing.

Without fully-fledged wingers, so much depends on the attacking work of the fullbacks, who need to operate like a pair of pliers, applying pressure on the opposition defence until it breaks.

Tsepo Masilela and Anele Ngcongca, the likely fullbacks tomorrow, both have the skills to do that job. But will the central defenders and midfielders line up high enough to give them a steady supply of ball?

When Bafana find themselves dominating an opponent, they need to find the courage to drive home their advantage. For that to happen, the two centrebacks must advance to wide positions near halfway, with MacBeth Sibaya slotting into the space between them.

Only then will the fullbacks remain within striking range of the opposition box for long periods, and profit fully from the creative vision of Siphiwe Tshabalala and Steven Pienaar. Katlego Mphela will do the rest.

Five goals would do the trick. Four would be fine, but three wouldn't be enough. It bears repeating: goal difference is a bitch.