Benni McCarthy struck his 29th goal for Bafana Bafana to draw level with fellow Capetonian Shaun Bartlett as the all-time leading South African goal-scorer but the nagging question remains: Was it not perhaps his presence that was responsible for the over confident, complacent approach of Carlos Alberto Parreira's men at Newlands on Sunday?
The Bafana players got caught up in the mania of "Benni's Back" and started believing the hype, naively assuming all they had to do was show up and the game was in the bag.
As a result, they idled their way into Sunday's African Cup of Nations qualifying tie against Zambia and paid the ultimate price by being embarrassed 3-1 in front of a 35 000 Newlands crowd.
"When you concede goals like that in the opening 20 minutes, you're never going to come back," Parreira said afterwards. "Three goals were too many. It was unthinkable that we would be beaten like that. It was a disaster.
'It was a disaster'
I can assure you, with other teams I have coached, even Brazil, I have never ever lost a home game as badly as this." Indeed!
In the build-up to the match, Safa-Western Cape president Vernon Seymour said this was an opportunity for Capetonians to emerge from their football lethargy and come out and show their support for Bafana.
Cape Town responded. They came by foot, by car, by taxi, by train, by bus, by hook or by crook. They spent their hard-earned R50, hoping to be entertained by the South African national football team.
The people came... the real Bafana didn't. Instead, in its place, was an unrecognisable football team that failed miserably to do justice to the potential within its ranks.
As an exercise to win over the Mother City's fickle football fans, it was a major disappointment.
