10 October 2018, by: Thabang Kgeledi

ANYTHING LESS THAN A WIN WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR BAFANA BAFANA

Guest columnist Thabang Kgeledi looks at why anything less than a victory on Saturday will spell disaster for Stuart Baxter’s Bafana Bafana.

 

South Africa come up against Seychelles twice in four days (Saturday and Tuesday next week) in the AFCON qualifiers. Anything less than two wins will be disastrous for Bafana Bafana’s chances… and Stuart Baxter’s job.

Bafana Bafana at their first training session in preparation for the 2019 AFCON qualifier clash against Seychelles. The first leg match will take place at FNB Stadium on Saturday. Kick-off is at 3pm

— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana)

This situation has an air of familiarity to it, doesn’t it? Seems like we have been here before. Bafana Bafana are sitting in a good position in their qualifying group. They need two wins in a row against an island-dwelling weak opponent to consolidate their strong spot.

Oh yes!

This was the exact set of circumstances found themselves in the World Cup Qualifiers. Bafana Bafana were on top of the standings, they needed two wins against the whipping boys of the group Cape Verde Islands.

The first movie ended badly. Bafana Bafana lost those two games against Cape Verde. They also lost their chance to represent their country in Russia 2018.

Bafana Bafana failed to qualify when Cape Verde beat them twice. . ? — ćastigo. (@BonganiMalate)

This time South Africa are pitted against another beautiful island; Seychelles.

You don’t need to be a football historian to know that the Seychelles don’t have a good soccer team. Bafana Bafana should wipe the floor with them – they are the superior footballing team.

Seychelles all-time leading scorer is Philip Zialor with an astounding 11 goals, their last competitive win was a 2-0 victory against Lesotho on 26/03/2016, and their team is made up of fishermen, hotel concierge staff, and executive chefs who play football as a hobby. Why waste everybody’s time, give Bafana Bafana the six points already.

But…

Before we start counting those chickens, here are a couple of issues we need to take into consideration.

In their last 8 games in the World Cup qualifiers and AFCON qualifiers, Bafana have scored only 9 goals (1.125 goals a game). They don’t seem to create enough goal scoring chances which is a worry.

South Africa don’t have goal-scoring centre-forwards and the attacking midfielders an inept in front of goal too.

Against Nigeria (a team that has better attacking players than South Africa), Seychelles defended deep. Even though it took the Super Eagles only 15 minutes to break the deadlock it wasn’t as easy as they might have anticipated it to be.

Against Nigeria (a team that has better attacking players than South Africa), Seychelles defended deep. Even though it took the Super Eagles only 15 minutes to break the deadlock it wasn’t as easy as they might have anticipated it to be.

Okay, so we have concluded that Seychelles are a bad team. However, The last thing Bafana Bafana want to do is underestimate their opponents.

A lack of concentration can lead to a wrong decision or defensive mistake which can cost them the win.

NO MORE BULL: take on Seychelles this weekend determined to reverse recent form

— Neal Collins (@nealcol)

Bafana can make hard work of an easy task. In their last qualifying game against Libya, Bafana Bafana looked out of ideas. Stuart Baxter still doesn’t know what his best eleven is and he still doesn’t know how they should play. Do they press, play on the counter, play short tika-taka type passes, play with the wings? Something isn’t right. Even with all the uncertainty, Bafana Bafana needs six points against Seychelles.

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