Bafana Bafana draw

Good point.

But in times of World Cup's for examples, there are no leagues on going therefore it's either play for your country or sit at home and do nothing.

I agree about the European leagues and I wish more SA players would play in them. Look at Bennie McCarthy and Steven Pienaar for example. Probably my 2 favourite SA players.

After playing with players at Blackburn, do you really expect Bennie to come back to SA and play with PSL players? I don't blame him.
 
chiskop said:
Most people wouldn't consider the racial make-up of the team to be the "obvious" first thing that they notice. :rolleyes:

Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that soccer is a truly global sport, and that rugby and cricket are sports played by a much much smaller number of countries? Or that our local administrators are useless? Or that our players are not committed to the national team because of the far greater rewards they can earn playing for European clubs? etc etc
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no national pride...

almost every white boy (colour is unfortunatly relevant here) would give anything to one day wear the Springbok jersey.

on the other hand our local football players go on strikes before major matches, demanding more money.

this is just my opinion though.
 
DigitalSoldier said:
no national pride...

almost every white boy (colour is unfortunatly relevant here) would give anything to one day wear the Springbok jersey.

on the other hand our local football players go on strikes before major matches, demanding more money.

this is just my opinion though.
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lets not kid ourselves it is a professional game.
 
Oh this was good from the political irony point of view.

The supposed great peaceful "progressive" nation(15 years old) the example of how it should be done can only draw at home to the recently war torn, devastated Iraq the example of exactly how it shouldn't be done :o:o

*Of course we'll ignore the fact that more South Africans are dying a day than Iraqis at the moment :erm:
 
Either way, as racist as it may be, I'm sticking by what I said.

The 90% black Bafana team obviously isn't working. I mean even a World Cup winning coach gave up (and I have my own very clear reasons why he left) I say throw a spanner into the works, change things up. I mean Bafana can't possibly do any worse right?
 
Unfortunately the only thing to do is invest in grass roots soccer. Proper coaching from day 1. Not this bollocks where Perreira has to teach 20-somethings to pass a ball properly. That should be learnt at the appropriate age. 9 methinks.

Fact is... SA has a shyte footballing education path and we will continue to shrivel until something is done about it.

Oh yeah - and complaining less would be helpful... This whole affair of "we don't want to play the colonials style, we need to play the African style" is bollocks. I mean please... football is the same everywhere - with only a few nuances to distinguish between countries. Attacking countries pass as well as defending countries - the only difference is the way in which they do it. Learn to pass boys between you can earn...

Another thing... I fully agree with Pienaar and Benni. I mean they come here and it's like playing in the junior leagues in Europe. MY mate who visited me a couple of years back was laughing his ass off through an entire PSL match. I mean come on... the risk of injury and losing your place in a starting XI where your teamies actually know how to play is enough to turn even the most patriotic player away.
 
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@smokey

Being someone who follows the SA squad dramas over the years, Benni pulls his stunts of not wanting to play, but let there be a major competition of some sort and he is going to complain about not making the squad. And he does it like clockwork. Have not seen that from Pienaar though.

For me its simple, if its an inconvinience to play for your country, just make yourself unavailable. Simple as that.
 
chiskop said:
Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that soccer is a truly global sport, and that rugby and cricket are sports played by a much much smaller number of countries?
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I'm sorry - but what the hell has that got to do with anything? I really fail to see the point you are so obviously trying to make...
 
First time I have seen Bafana play in a while, and I can now understand your frustrations.
My summary:

Goalkeeper...no real saves to make, but good vision and distribution.
Defenders: Solid, though against Iraq. Mokoena a bit two minded, Booth solid in air but not at set pieces (corners etc) plays like a hard Yorkshireman I know, but lets players get behind him sometimes. The blokes on right hand side were impressive.
Midfield: Lots of clever players with 'the moves', masilela, gaxa, modise et al. Nice to watch , a few great touches and then the ball gets lost.
Won't get into attacking (there isn't), because it is at this midfield/attacking juncture where the team falls flat and frustrates the hell out of you to watch.
Too many designers and no builders. They pure and simply either do not know when to strike, do not have a striker, cannot 'sniff' a goal, cannot even direct a spot kick at goal.
They are all too nancy pancy....too pretty, without finishing and too bunched in middle until ball gets lost.
The near goal came on a surprise over hit cross beating goalie and surprising everyone to extent of being headed against the striker.

The plus is that this has the basics of a very good team. They need a coach as the aussies have done , Hiddink then Verbeeck who can give them that toughness and structure to get in goal scoring positions.

btw... it seems that Ellis Park is on at least the narrower side of allowed size dimensions (if not shorter too)...too many overhit crosses from both and goalkeepers punting from goal to goal. This sort of field does lead to that bunched up play in the middle and doesn't bring your flankers into play (or too well anyway).

Get a decent striker and tell the midfield to stop pissing around.

cheers
 
Was at the match yesterday, lots of noise and lots of vuvuzelas, eish.

Only 2 good moments in the whole match, one in each half. First was Macbeth's shot and then the header that our OWN bloody striker stopped from going in. :sick:

My opinion, our guys rarely make the right passes and through balls. We actually don't have a striker either.
 
Has anyone considered that Iraq were not as bad as any thought they would be?
Afterall they are the Asian Champions. That tells you that they must have beaten down the likes of Japan, Australia, South Korea etc. These are teams that are much better than the current Bafana Bafana team...

Bafana should learn to pass and shoot if they want to get further than than the first round. I thought even New Zealand (bad as they were, in defense) were still better at passing and shooting.
 
In my very short time in London, in the middle of winter, I found myself frequenting the warmest place in that part of the world. A local pub.

Frequently there was a football game on, and the dads would bring their young'ins in to watch the game with them. Nothing peculiar about that ... except for the youth and alcohol thing.

BUT, the dads were explaining the game to their sons. Not by name-dropping, but, seriously saying stuff like:

- Son, watch how the centre forward is being matched by the left and right centres, keeping lanes open through which he can pass.
- Son, you see that, that is a fine example of a shayte player, he is not supporting his team because he is never available to pass to.
- Son, that is how you cross a ball, notice how it stays straight and true and too high to reach, and then curves down near the goal mouth. Tomorrow we will go and I'll show you where to kick the ball to cause that to happen.

Stuff like that, including the game rules and the working of the dreaded offsides.

By the time that young'in gets into a football game, he knows how the game works intellectually, all he needs to do is get the skill levels up, and improve on the intellectual part.

In this country, I have yet to meet a single person who watches soccer on a regular basis and can explain the offsides rules to me in a way that I can understand.
 
davemc said:
In my very short time in London, in the middle of winter, I found myself frequenting the warmest place in that part of the world. A local pub.

Frequently there was a football game on, and the dads would bring their young'ins in to watch the game with them. Nothing peculiar about that ... except for the youth and alcohol thing.

BUT, the dads were explaining the game to their sons. Not by name-dropping, but, seriously saying stuff like:

- Son, watch how the centre forward is being matched by the left and right centres, keeping lanes open through which he can pass.
- Son, you see that, that is a fine example of a shayte player, he is not supporting his team because he is never available to pass to.
- Son, that is how you cross a ball, notice how it stays straight and true and too high to reach, and then curves down near the goal mouth. Tomorrow we will go and I'll show you where to kick the ball to cause that to happen.

Stuff like that, including the game rules and the working of the dreaded offsides.

By the time that young'in gets into a football game, he knows how the game works intellectually, all he needs to do is get the skill levels up, and improve on the intellectual part.

In this country, I have yet to meet a single person who watches soccer on a regular basis and can explain the offsides rules to me in a way that I can understand.
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Excellent post, couldnt agree more
 
Agreed.

The players abroad are given a soccer ball for their second birthday and never look back.

Judging by some of our players, they only kick a soccer ball when they're 18.
 
Well I would start with getting the right structures in place, I also don't give a crap who puts them there (White/black/asian). Then we might reach some of the success we have reached with cricket and rugby on the world scene.

Morgoth said:
lets not kid ourselves it is a professional game.
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Then its time the players start acting professional and SA Soccer appoint professional people. At the moment they are throwing money at the problem and that is sure to end badly.
 
davemc said:
In this country, I have yet to meet a single person who watches soccer on a regular basis and can explain the offsides rules to me in a way that I can understand.
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I'm sure Genius. is around somewhere... :D He tried to teach hj2kx about the offside rule, but I think the thread was closed before either had the time to learn anything.:p

Stickfigure said:
Agreed.

The players abroad are given a soccer ball for their second birthday and never look back.

Judging by some of our players, they only kick a soccer ball when they're 18.
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Bollocks. South Africa (and African countries in general) have so many kids playing from a young age in the townships that the technical skills are all there - they are just lacking in the mental department. They can pass nicely - they are just blinckered when it comes to choose a pass. They can all shoot, they just don't have the proper timing. It's a bad footballing education (on the street) if they don't have anyone guiding them properly. There is a good reason it's called street football and not proper football.
 
Stickfigure said:
Agreed.

The players abroad are given a soccer ball for their second birthday and never look back.

Judging by some of our players, they only kick a soccer ball when they're 18.
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BS!!!

Most of these guys played soccer from the soccer academies like the School of Exellence from a very young age.

We must just admit that world soccer is a lot more competetive when compared to rugby and cricket.
Judging by our world ranking (72). There are more than 70 nations that are on paper better than us. Need I remind you that at some stage we were ranked number 19 and number 1 in Africa. There has been a sturdy decline (over 10 years) in our perfomance and maybe we need to start planning for the longer term instead of focusing on the upcoming tournaments.
The standard of the local league does not help matters. If you constantly compete with at a midiocre level you stand no chance of improvement.
 
JungleBoy said:
BS!!!

Most of these guys played soccer from the soccer academies like the School of Exellence from a very young age.
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We must have different definitions of the word "excellence"... Maybe it's the spelling?
 
smokey said:
We must have different definitions of the word "excellence"... Maybe it's the spelling?
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dude, that's the name of the academy:D
The name might be conveying an aspiration rather than the current state.

We have also won a WC at under 12 level if I'm not mistaken.
That just shows that the talent is there at an early age but the local league is such crap you can't expect anything good to come out of it.
 
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