The Bafana Bafana Thread

JuliusSeizure said:
It's their immigrant communities which brought soccer to life in their countries. Canada were worse than us for most of history in soccer but came up over the last 7 years or so, mainly because of players from immigrant communities like Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David etc coming through.
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The 1994 World Cup held in the US still holds the record for average attendance, and that led to the initial boom in popularity for the sport.

Cobi Jones, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Jeff Agoos, DeMarcus Beasley, Tim Howard, Kasey Keller, Brian McBride, Brad Friedel some of the most capped players in US history and they don't have ''immigrant'' names in the sense of not being 2nd/3rd gen Latino, African or non-English/Irish European Americans. These players came up following the 1994 World Cup and were the backbone of the strong sides of the 2000s into the mid 2010s. Sure, you had guys like Jozy Altidore, Claudio Reyna and Carlos Bocanegra around the same time that were from immigrant communities, but the initial boom in the sport's popularity was on the back of the popularity of the sport among ''home-grown'' players following 1994.

Recently they may have had to rely on more players from what you'd consider immigrant communities today (Latino, African, etc) to pull them out of the doldrums they have found themselves in, but in the past, it was very ''home grown''.

I will mention Pele, who's time in the US also caused a huge surge in the sport's popularity in the 70s.
 
thestaggy said:
The 1994 World Cup held in the US still holds the record for average attendance, and that led to the initial boom in popularity for the sport.

Cobi Jones, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Jeff Agoos, DeMarcus Beasley, Tim Howard, Kasey Keller, Brian McBride, Brad Friedel some of the most capped players in US history and they don't have ''immigrant'' names in the sense of not being 2nd/3rd gen Latino, African or non-English/Irish European Americans. These players came up following the 1994 World Cup and were the backbone of the strong sides of the 2000s into the mid 2010s. Sure, you had guys like Jozy Altidore, Claudio Reyna and Carlos Bocanegra around the same time that were from immigrant communities, but the initial boom in the sport's popularity was on the back of the popularity of the sport among ''home-grown'' players following 1994.

Recently they may have had to rely on more players from what you'd consider immigrant communities today (Latino, African, etc) to pull them out of the doldrums they have found themselves in, but in the past, it was very ''home grown''.

I will mention Pele, who's time in the US also caused a huge surge in the sport's popularity in the 70s.
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They were decent when they had those players but certainly not near the level they are at now. They were mostly a B grade team during those days (they had good keepers) but the attack was too dependent on Donovan and Dempsey. Their FIFA ranking was always inflated due to them playing against Concacaf teams.

Nowadays, they are a well-rounded team. Still a bit adrift of the best but a solid top 15 team.
 
JuliusSeizure said:
They were decent when they had those players but certainly not near the level they are at now. They were mostly a B grade team during those days (they had good keepers) but the attack was too dependent on Donovan and Dempsey. Their FIFA ranking was always inflated due to them playing against Concacaf teams.

Nowadays, they are a well-rounded team. Still a bit adrift of the best but a solid top 15 team.
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They made the quarters in 2002 (their best ever performance at a WC) and peaked at their highest ranking of 4th in 2006 with the players I mentioned.

That period also saw a number of their players plying their trade in the Bundesliga and Premier League.
 
thestaggy said:
They made the quarters in 2002 (their best ever performance at a WC) and peaked at their highest ranking of 4th in 2006 with the players I mentioned.

That period also saw a number of their players plying their trade in the Bundesliga and Premier League.
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That ranking of 4 in 2006 was almost certainly boosted by playing against Concacaf teams because they were dreadful in that World Cup. Outplayed by Ghana and Czech Republic. They got the point against Italy because Italy had that early red which affected their balance.

Yeah, they had EPL players at that time but mostly guys who played for bottom of the table clubs as we had during that period.

Guys like Bocanegra and DaMarcus Beasley were not even Europa League quality of we being honest. Decent but not near the quality they have today.

Tbh, if Bafana Bafana was playing in Concacaf, especially at that time, we'd probably have qualified for the 06 World Cup.
 
I see one of our lads failed an age test .

www.goal.com

Amajimbos coach Vela Khumalo reveals why Kaizer Chiefs' starlet Steven Mendes missed U17 World Cup finals but 'we have soldiered on and remain focused' | Goal.com South Africa

The starlet, who left the Amakhosi youth development academy to join Swedish top-tier side Hammarby IF and returned in July, has missed the global showpiece. It has now been revealed that he failed an age test, and that is why he is not part of the junior side in Qatar. Khumalo has stated...
www.goal.com
 
rayven_king said:
no idea but I'd be happy to not get drawn with them :X3:
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They're in the same Pot as us, so we fortunately avoid getting plowed by Haaland.

Best case scenario for us would be getting drawn with Canada. Then we get either Croatia, Switzerland or Austria (each group has to have at least 1 European team) and then hopefully Curacao, Haiti or New Zealand from Pot 4.
 
thestaggy said:
They're in the same Pot as us, so we fortunately avoid getting plowed by Haaland.

Best case scenario for us would be getting drawn with Canada. Then we get either Croatia, Switzerland or Austria (each group has to have at least 1 European team) and then hopefully Curacao, Haiti or New Zealand from Pot 4.
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Tbh, Norway aren't as much a threat as you may think. Bar Haaland and Odegaard, there other players aren't that much better than us. There is reason they have not qualified for tournaments up until now even with Haaland in the mix.

We can contain the best teams in Africa now and surely can contain them.
 
JuliusSeizure said:
Tbh, Norway aren't as much a threat as you may think. Bar Haaland and Odegaard, there other players aren't that much better than us. There is reason they have not qualified for tournaments up until now even with Haaland in the mix.
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It's not just Haaland you have to worry about. They are loaded in attack. Haaland's strike partner, Sorloth from Atletico Madrid, is prolific in his own right. Obviously not on Haaland's level (who is?), but he scores in La Liga and for the national team. Antonio Nusa from RB Leipzig is currently hot property. The other youngster, Thelo Aasgaard from Rangers, was prolific in qualifying. Oscar Bobb from Man City was looking extremely good until he picked up an injury. He is back now, but a little off the boil. If he finds himself again, another one to watch.

They are a bit shaky on defence against good teams but going forward they are a handful because they have multiple threats.

JuliusSeizure said:
We can contain the best teams in Africa now and surely can contain them.
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Containing Haaland is something some of the best defences in Europe have struggled to do.

Specific to us, look at the size of him vs our players. It will be a long shift trying to contain him. Containing both of their forwards will be a task as Sorloth is the same height/frame as Haaland.
 
stefan9 said:
Currently ranked 29th in the world not been to a mayor tournament for 26 years.

Great current form but based on what should they be higher?
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Yeah, fair IMO but the new format will spice things up a bit. The WC is essentially now more like the FA Cup and once every while, you will probably have an unexpected winner. It will create the most opportunity for those kind of B+ teams like Japan and Norway who can get to a final, maybe win with a bit of luck as Crystal Palace won the FA Cup last season.

If I had to bet on it, the way Asian teams are progressing, we will probably see a non-Euro/South American winner in our lifetime and I'd hazard a guess it will be from the Asian Confederation.
 
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Our two World Cup wins were against European nations- Slovenia (2002) and France (2010). The 2002 side was definitely capable of a quarter-final finish if Andre Arendse did not commit that howler to gift Raul a goal against Spain.
 
stefan9 said:
Currently ranked 29th in the world not been to a mayor tournament for 26 years.

Great current form but based on what should they be higher?
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They haven't lost a game in over a year, last defeat coming against Austria in October 2024. Perfect record in their qualifying group (8 wins from 8).

Thoroughly smashed Italy in their qualifying group (7-1 aggregate), who are 17 places above them in the rankings.

The rankings tend to favour recent form over historical and World Cup qualifiers are weighted quite heavily, with only the World Cup and Continental tournaments carrying more weight.

All the above taken into account, a bit odd to be ranked so low when they are one of the form teams.
 
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