On the evidence of their putrid performance, maybe, just maybe, Donald Trump’s people should have denied Bafana Bafana visas after all.
Mexico were not mercurial on Thursday night. Far from it. However, they marinated Bafana and munched them like a light-grilled peri-peri flank steak as the South Africans looked paralysed by the occasion and offered an obtuse performance wrapped in paranoia.
The supporters who watched in freezing Joburg sleepwalked their way to bed.
Considering that they are in Mexico, perhaps the planning should have included players downing tequila shots before the game to relax their nerves and unshackle themselves from that shambolic pretence at playing football.
Forget the two red cards. They were a gloss on a loss of a match approached with tactics clothed in cowardice and driven by a dogged determination to self-destruct.
The red flags were unmissable from the 11 chosen to start, a selection that screamed the team was winging it on a wing and prayer.
Bafana boss Hugo Broos was hit by a brave brain wave to try something totally new, that was as bizarre as it was baffling. Bizarre because he opted — for the first time ever in his five-year tenure, it must be emphasised — to start with two strikers.
But Iqraam Rayners and Lyle Foster were starved for service in a manner worse than the biblical famines.
Mind-boggling night
Because none of the three midfielders on duty on the miserable, mind-boggling night in Mexico proved to be the creative outlet, laying off pinpoint passes to create openings for scoring chances.
By straying from the football Bafana played as they navigated their way to the World Cup during the qualifying matches, the Belgian coach contrived to be the architect of his team’s demise.
Red flags have been flashing of late. The 2023 Afcon in Ivory Coast and the 2025/26 Morocco event were like chalk and cheese.
In West Africa, Bafana were heartwarming and eye-catching. By contrast in North Africa, they were a gut-wrenching eyesore.
The moment calls for cold introspection and crucial interrogation of the careful approach which did not deliver the required result
No one in their right mind expected that Bafana would, at this World Cup, emulate the quarterfinal guts of Cameroon at Italy 90, Senegal in Korea-Japan 02, Ghana in 2010, not to mention Morocco’s semifinal finish in Qatar.
The moment calls for cold introspection and crucial interrogation of the careful approach which did not deliver the required result.
One hopes for a brutally honest conversation among the players that, against Czechia, they must play not to avoid defeat but to grab the game by the scruff of the neck.
That can only happen if Broos, who has a penchant for giving a mule a run for its money in the stubborn stakes, can throw caution to the wind.
Make or break for Bafana
The next game is not an opportunity for him to be obstinate. It’s make or break for Bafana and do or die for Czechia, who lost their opener against South Korea. Both teams need a victory to bring their campaigns back on track and keep alive hopes of progressing beyond the group stage.
The one who wants it most will be on the front foot, fully aware that this game, despite the many modern trends of low blocks and hoping to catch opponents in transition, still makes room for the old military strategy: the best form of defence is attack.
Broos and his boys must look each other in the eye and ask themselves if they are at the biggest global football stage for sight-seeing or to make a statement.
If the answer is the latter, they must go for broke against Czechia. They have nothing to lose by adopting offensive action instead of passive resistance.
This current crop of Bafana players must choose whether they want to attain history by avoiding an early exit or be lumped in the heap of their predecessors who found the task too great a challenge to overcome.
All we ask is for them to at least, return to the basics that got them to where they are. We ask of them to fight and leave everything on the pitch — heart, mind and soul.
@bbkuplugged99
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