Sixy Bafana give cause for optimism

The aftermath of Bafana Bafana’s hammering of the Seychelles on Saturday at the FNB Stadium certainly led to a far more pleasant post-match encounter with Stuart Baxter, than a month earlier, when a goalless draw with Libya had seen a press conference end with a rather needless squabble with a member of the Fourth Estate.

Yet there was one moment on Saturday, understandably, when Baxter bristled at a question pointing at the mediocrity of the opposition Bafana had faced.

“I am not one to duck questions, but when you see the national team win 6-0 against whichever opposition … I don’t see why we have to ask a negative question,” said the Bafana coach.
“Your perspective on the game is different to mine, I will take a lot of positives.”

Given the amount of stick Bafana Bafana coaches get, and they have had plenty in recent years, given the mediocrity of the results, I do think it is fair enough to say we should celebrate a 6-0 victory, however poor the opposition. This was, after all, a record victory for the national team in any international since readmission.

The Seychelles were not very good, but Bafana made the most of it, in fact, on another day they could have run up a rugby score. It was also good to see them, as Baxter noted, not take their foot off the throat of the opposition.

At 3-0 up at half-time, they could have relaxed, but they kept pressing until the end, and even substitutes Dino Ndlovu and Teboho Mokoena managed to get on the scoresheet.

The link-up play between Lebo Maboe, Percy Tau and Lebo Mothiba was great fun to watch, while SuperSport’s Aubrey Modiba was also excellent, being given a start despite accidentally being omitted when the initial squad was named.

It will be interesting to see if the Seychelles put up more of a fight on home soil in Victoria. Nigeria “only” won 3-0 there, and the main questions seems to be how Bafana will cope with the artificial pitch at the Stade Linite, rather than the opposition.

“We are all amateurs,” pointed out Seychelles coach Gavin Jeanne.

“Only one of our players is studying in Germany and playing in a lower league there. Every match is difficult, especially when we cannot dominate possession. You cannot see our talent if we don’t have the ball.”

Jeanne even pointed out that his side did not have a direct flight to the Seychelles en-route home – they had to go via Kenya.

“We have a long trip back … but we have to find a way to recover, we know the Seychelles do not have many players at this level … from the first day we were not thinking about qualification …. our main objective … was measuring ourselves against the best.”

Bafana, meanwhile, arrived in the Seychelles yesterday and pictures emerged of them chilling out at the beach, a deserved bit of relaxation after Saturday’s result.

I am sure that their eyes will be right back on the ball once today’s game kicks off, and they will surely rack up another win that will give them a fantastic chance of making it to Cameroon 2019.

It is easy to denigrate the opposition, but if you can’t be optimistic after a 6-0 win, then when can you be?

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