There are so many frailties in SA football, but one seems to be escaping attention.
What I’m talking about is the foundation of every club — the vital aspect without which a club can’t play.
In football, a match can continue even if a team is four players down, as long as you have someone keeping goals. A team in this position can operate, even win a match, if they have good infield players with a great goal-minder.
It’s basically the same as in the corporate world — no company can function without an efficient CEO.
Such is the importance of goalkeepers, but in our football we seem to be producing fewer and fewer good gloveman, judging by the numbers and quality we have in the top teams in our professional league.
Think of SA’s three biggest clubs: Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns, which have foreigners as their number one goalkeepers. By the way, I have no beef with my African brothers, if they’re good, they’re goodooh (in Nigeria’s pidgin English).
There is Uganda’s Denis Onyango at Sundowns and Nigeria’s Daniel Akpeyi at Chiefs. Pirates recently signed Ghana’s number one, Richard Ofori, who was at Maritzburg United.
In last weekend’s Soweto derby between Chiefs and Pirates, Akpeyi, Nigeria’s number one, was in the goalposts for Amakhosi and Ofori was at the opposite end, even though he had little to do, judging by the 3-0 in favour of Bucs. But I’m not commenting on that today.
Worryingly, local keepers’ struggles to find regular game time in the 16 Premier Soccer League (PSL) clubs doesn’t end there.
Even our last hope, Ronwen Williams of SuperSport United, has George Chigova, a good Zimbabwean goalkeeper, breathing down his neck.
One mistake, loss of form or injury by Williams will see SuperSport coach Kaitano Tembo handing the gloves to Chigova. And when that happens, Bafana Bafana will be devoid of a reputable number one with regular PSL experience.
I’m no longer counting on Itumeleng Khune, SA’s finest not long ago. Age, injuries and him no longer being first choice at Chiefs means we can no longer count on Khune as a Bafana goalkeeper in the long term. Certainly not for the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar, if we miraculously make it there.
If you look at number one goalkeepers in other teams in the PSL Baroka FC have Elvis Chipezeze, a fine Zimbabwean shot stopper, Cape Town City have Peter Leeuwenburgh from the Netherlands, Swallows FC have Virgil Vries from Namibia and Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila have Zimbabwe’s Washington Arubi.
With that, you already have seven if not more non-SA goalkeepers guaranteed starting XI positions in our PSL teams. Three are in the top clubs that are expected to feed Bafana with players. Where does this leave Molefi Ntseki as Bafana Bafana coach?
I asked him last week when discontent erupted after he selected Khune for the squad to face Sao Tome and Principe in back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on November 13 and 16.
The other two keepers are Williams and Darren Keet, who now plays for AH Leuven in Belgium’s first division.
“We don’t have South African goalkeepers playing for the top teams in the top leagues in the world, which is a big concern. The challenge is who are the other goalkeepers who’ve played more matches in their clubs and [who’ve] got experience of playing in the Bafana Bafana team?” Ntseki responded, defending his decision on Khune.
This is a tragedy, given that not long ago SA had Andre Arendse as its gloveman for a long time. He was in goals when Bafana won the Afcon for the first and only time in 1996.
Arendse always had stiff competition in Brian Baloyi, Roger De Sa, John Tlale, Calvin Marlin, Wayne Roberts, Emile Baron, Hans Vonk and Moeneeb Josephs, which is why he was on tiptoes for many years.
Sadly, we cannot say the same about Bafana’s ’keepers of today. It’s always a toss-up between Williams and Keet. Not many younger players are raising their hands in the PSL or elsewhere.
Ricardo Goss is an exception. But his decision to join Sundowns from the now-defunct Bidvest Wits may help him personally in the long term. Crucially, however, it does little for Ntseki, who can’t select him if he doesn’t get game time at Sundowns. There, Goss has Kennedy Mweene, a Zambian, to contend with for the coveted last-line-of-defence spot.
Perhaps loaning Goss to a club such as Maritzburg, which has just lost its reliable goalie, Ofori, may ultimately help SA.
Overall though, the current situation demands a lot from those who are training our up-and-coming goalkeepers because we may end up with a really substandard Bafana.
A lot of clubs have employed former top SA goalies to train the youngsters, such as Arendse at SuperSport. But for now it seems not enough quality is coming through and PSL clubs are relying more and more on non-South Africans.
You can’t blame them if they don’t see much quality on our shores. But this has to be the biggest worry for our football officials, including those who perennially doze off at Safa House and only wake up when it's not on fire, but in ruins.
The work of replacing the likes of Khune and Keet has to start with every PSL club scouting for a good pair of hands. More importantly, if there’s potential, such as there is with Goss at Sundowns, a local goalkeeper has to start, if only for Bafana’s sake.
Or am I wrong?
