SA’s fickle fans eat humble pie

“Baxter must GO! That’s all you need to write!” So said a Bafana Bafana fan who climbed onto the same plane as me back to Johannesburg in the early hours of last Tuesday morning, not long at all after South Africa had lost 1-0 to Morocco at the Al Salam Stadium, their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations future hanging by the narrowest of threads.

Fast forward only a week and I wonder if that same fan has changed his tune. That is certainly not what I am writing as Bafana prepare for an Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal against Nigeria, having stunned hosts Egypt in their national stadium on Saturday evening.

Not that one can blame anyone for having had enough of Bafana after the group stages. I myself opted to return to South Africa, partly because my ticket was already booked, but also because after watching this national team live in seven Afcons since 2002, it was only natural to expect the worst.

Before they beat Egypt on Saturday, South Africa had won exactly four matches in those seven Afcons, and three of those were against Benin (before they got good), Angola and Namibia. The only other win came against Morocco in 2002.

I fully admit I felt that even if Bafana had sneaked through to the last-16, which they ultimately did, thanks to Mali’s win over Angola, they would not get further than that. And when they ended up in a game against Egypt, at the Cairo International Stadium, only a blind patriot could have predicted they would go to the quarterfinals. One individual even offered a full kitchen renovation on Twitter if Bafana made it, something they must be slightly regretting right now.

And then, Bafana, when you least expected it, pulled not just a win out of the fire, but a performance that fully merited the win too, without doubt Bafana’s best performance at an Afcon since Carlos Queiroz’s Bafana tore apart Morocco in Segou, with Sibusiso Zuma, Thabo Mngomeni and Siyabonga Nomvethe getting the goals in a 3-1 win.

Thembinkosi Lorch may have been a forced selection in some way, with Themba Zwane suspended, but he lived up to his billing, and for the calls for him to be included, with a beautifully-taken goal with five minutes left.

And so I sit in a Johannesburg office munching on some humble pie, and trying to figure out a way to get back to Cairo, Bafana, meanwhile, will feel they can beat anyone, with the wind in their sails and the Super Eagles of Nigeria next up tomorrow.

Stuart Baxter, too, has shown himself again to be an astute tactician, coming up with a brilliant plan to nullify Egypt, and finally injecting some attacking vim into this side.

The caution his side employed in the group stages, it must be said, still nearly proved their downfall, and we could easily be sitting here discussing a very different story.

But no tournament is won without a spot of luck, and Bafana are starting to show the skill needed at potentially just the right time.

Consistency has been Bafana’s main problem in recent times, with a win in Nigeria followed by home-and-away defeats to the Cape Verde Islands, a 6-0 thrashing of the Seychelles followed by a goalless draw with the same opposition a few days later.

If they can find that in Cairo, however, who knows how far this side could go?

Suddenly the impossible seems possible, and the headlines far more likely to be “Baxter must STAY!” It’s a funny old game.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.