‘South Africa, you have a foundation, build on it’ – Minister Mbalula
Bafana Bafana will return to South Africa in a day or two.
“IT is now time to reflect on our national soccer team, said Minister of Sport and Recreation Mr Fikile Mbalula.
Bafana Bafana’s loss to Ghana in their final AFCON 2015 Group C match 2-1 and therefore not going through to the next round. They will be returning South Africa in the next day after their exit.
Minister Mbalulala said:”We would like to thank Equatorial Guinea for a great tournament and hospitality. I think AFCON 2015 lived up to great expectations of the great African tournament. It was a warm tournament for us South Africans who have been here. Secondly we would like to convey our word of appreciation and concede defeat to Ghana for a job well done. Congratulations to them and good luck for the future. Now we reinstate BaGhana BaGhana, and with that we hope they will go on and win the tournament.
“This was an important journey for our national team. From a sporting point of view it was a journey in which we learnt our lessons from this tournament. We will look at the weaknesses from all sides – the side of the technical team, from the side of the leadership and everybody else. It was an important journey for Shakes and the boys to take us to AFCON. I think there is no better place to learn from your mistakes and to celebrate your achievements other than the AFCON.
“We have come here, but we couldn’t conquer, from the first match to the last one. The humble lesson we learnt is that the first match is very important in a tournament like this. You play like it is a final, because teams in the second and third game pick up and get their rhythm, they have studied you very well and they know how to counter you. And in this particular instance, it is exactly what happened and I think the boys will get stronger. This defeat itself must humble South Africa, and make us calm down and sharpen our spears going forward.
“We don’t need to go back to the drawing board, we need to consolidate our gains and build our national team. We have the material, we have the foundation, boys who believe and I think this will strengthen them. Most of the players here is in their first time at AFCON, and they really carried themselves very well. I salute this team and I want to encourage them to continue to believe in their own country and play for the national team. I just want to say, philosophically, if it was not meant to be, you have to let it go.
“I thought yesterday Bafana Bafana can defend one, and score the second. It didn’t happen. I think we were playing against a Ferrari in this tournament, where I believe it was the hardest match for us. I think Ghana believed in themselves, they wanted it more especially after they heard that Algeria had scored two goals. Ghana fought because the belief was there that they could go to the second round. Congratulations to them and our way ends here.
“We will go back and face the reality that we must continue to build a formidable side and learn from this competition, good lessons, and take constructive criticism and build forward. There is no reason for the coach and the boys to drop their heads. All they need to do is to accept some criticism and that will build the team.”
