Bafana win the battle but lose the war

Bongani Khumalo

Bafana Bafana took advant­age of a depleted and dis­pir­ited France team to run out deserved 2–1 win­ners in their final World Cup Group A match at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein yes­ter­day after­noon. It was a much-improved per­form­ance from the South Africans, who were soundly beaten by Uruguay in their pre­vi­ous fix­ture in Pretoria last Wednesday.

Carlos Alberto Parreira’s men, under pres­sure to record a win to restore national pride, pro­duced the goods against their highly-ranked oppon­ents with defender Bongani Khumalo (pic­tured) and striker Katlego Mphela banging in goals in the 20^th and 37^th minutes respect­ively. In reply, Raymond Domenech’s out­fit could only muster a 70^th minute effort from Florent Malouda. Continued

Monday Morning 2010 World Cup News

Vincenzo Iaquinta

Draw leaves Italy in danger of early exit
New Zealand pro­duced a spir­ited and determ­ined per­form­ance when they held defend­ing cham­pi­ons Italy to a 1–1 draw in an enthralling World Cup Group F encounter at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Sunday. The res­ult leaves the fifth ranked Azzurri with a lot to do to make it through to the knock­out stages after they drew their open­ing match (also 1–1) with Paraguay a week ago.

Shane Smeltz stunned Italy early on when he found the back of the net in the sev­enth minute. His goal ori­gin­ated from New Zealand’s first attack of the match after Simon Elliot lof­ted a long free kick in from the left towards the back post. The ball floated over the heads of the Azzurri defend­ers and bounced off Fabio Cannavaro’s knee, leav­ing Smeltz free to stab the ball home from inside the six-yard box. Continued

Fabulous Forlan floors Bafana

Diego Forlan

Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan (pic­tured) was in scin­til­lat­ing form for Uruguay at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria last night when he scored twice to help his coun­try to a com­fort­able 3–0 win over hosts South Africa. Bafana Bafana simply had no answer to the attack­ing prowess of the blonde haired, blue eyed Forlan who had a per­fect match with vir­tu­ally everything he touched turn­ing to gold.

The defeat means South Africa have to win their remain­ing Group A match against France on Tuesday to have any chance of mak­ing it through to the second round of the com­pet­i­tion. A 24^th minute strike and then a con­tro­ver­sial 80^th minute pen­alty from Forlan, which saw Bafana goal­keeper Itumeleng Khune sent off after he was adjudged to have brought down Luis Suarez, sealed the win for the two time World Cup cham­pi­ons. Continued

Maicon saves the day for Brazil and other World Cup News

Maicon

Maicon saves the day for Brazil
Brazil full­back Maicon (pic­tured) scored a superb goal from a seem­ingly impossible angle to guide the World Cup favour­ites to a 2–1 win over a gritty North Korea in their Group G encounter at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Tuesday evening.

Maicon some­how man­aged to fire a shot into the net from the most acute of angles in the 55^th minute, before Elano added a second goal 17 minutes later to put the South American giants in com­mand. Ji Yun-nam pulled one back for North Korea on 89 minutes, speed­ing past two play­ers and smash­ing home a left-foot drive, but it was a case of too little, too late as the ‘Golden Squad’ held on for the win. Continued

No place for Benni in final Bafana squad and other South African Sports News – 2 June

Benni McCarthy

No place for Benni in final Bafana squad
All-time lead­ing Bafana Bafana goalscorer Benni McCarthy (pic­tured) has pre­dict­ably been left out of the final 23-man Bafana World Cup squad by coach Carlos Alberto Parreira. The 67-year-old Parreira, who named the final squad yes­ter­day, decided not to gamble on West Ham striker McCarthy whose fit­ness has been ques­tion­able since recov­er­ing from a recent knee injury.

The 32-year-old McCarthy, who has rep­res­en­ted South Africa on 79 occa­sions with 32 goals to his credit, was one of five play­ers who failed to sur­vive Parreira’s final cut. McCarthy was recalled to national duty des­pite linger­ing con­cerns over his fit­ness and Parreira had hoped the player would improve given his inter­na­tional exper­i­ence and goal-scoring abil­it­ies. Continued

Determined Bafana continue to impress and other South African Sports News – 26 May

Siyabonga Sangweni

Determined Bafana con­tinue to impress
Bafana Bafana pro­duced a determ­ined and sprited per­form­ance to draw 1–1 against highly rated Bulgaria in an excit­ing friendly inter­na­tional played at a near capa­city Orlando Stadium on Monday even­ing. It was an excel­lent effort from the South Africans against their 39^th world-ranked oppon­ents and bodes well for their ambi­tions at next month’s Fifa World Cup, which kicks off on June 11.

Bafana are now unbeaten in nine matches since head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira took over the helm in November last year and if the South African’s can con­tinue to play with the same level of pride, pas­sion and com­mit­ment they demon­strated against Bulgaria, they stand an excel­lent chance of mak­ing it through to the second round of next month’s global showpiece. Continued

Bafana go on a goal spree — and other SA Sports News – 19 May

Katlego Mphela

Bafana go on a goal spree
Bafana Bafana gave their fans and the coun­try plenty to shout about on Sunday when they thumped Thailand 4–0 to cel­eb­rate the offi­cial open­ing of the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit. Bafana, on the whole, weren’t shy to pull the trig­ger as they mowed down their oppon­ents in an impress­ive dis­play which saw Katlego Mphela (pic­tured) bang in two goals to go with one apiece from Siphiwe Tshabalala and Bernard Parker.

The Bafana team man­age­ment and their fans must have been delighted with their teams’ effort, which equalled their best win at home – a 4–0 wal­lop­ing of Chad three years ago in Durban. Bafana wrapped up the match inside the open­ing 45 minutes with three superb goals, which brought cheers of delight from the 30 000 strong crowd not to men­tion the deaf­en­ing roar of what could have pos­sibly been an equal num­ber of vuvuzelas ... Continued

South African Sports News – 12 May

Teko Modise

Thailand up next for Bafana
Bafana Bafana will be play­ing for their places in head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira’s final World Cup squad when the national team host Thailand in a friendly at the new Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Sunday after­noon. That was the mes­sage from Bafana cap­tain Teko Modise (pic­tured) yes­ter­day as the team begin the final stages of their pre­par­a­tions for the inter­na­tional showpiece, which starts in Johannesburg next month.

“We know little about Thailand and will be watch­ing DVD’s of their recent games, but the fact is we are fight­ing for our places in the squad. We all know what is at stake,” said Modise. “The coach has to cut the squad from 30 to 23 on June 1. That is sad but a fact. So with time run­ning out we have to per­form against Thailand,” he added. Continued

South African Sports News — 5 May

Morgan Gould

Parreira names 29-man squad as 2010 count­down looms
Bafana Bafana head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira named a 29-man pro­vi­sional squad on Friday as the national team began to final­ise their pre­par­a­tions for the 2010 World Cup, which starts on June 11 when Bafana face Mexico at Soccer City in Johannesburg.

There were hardly any sur­prises at the announce­ment of the squad with the 67-year-old coach retain­ing most of his tried and tested play­ers – includ­ing European-based play­ers such as Everton mid­fielder Steven Pienaar, cap­tain Aaron Mokoena of Portsmouth, Benni McCarthy, who plays for West Ham United, and mid­field anchor­man Kagisho Dikgacoi of Fulham. The only real eye­brow raiser was the omis­sion of Spanish-based defender Nasief Morris ... Continued

South African Sports News – 28 April

Carlos Parreira

Bafana to face ‘Reggae Boyz’ after China pull-out
World Cup hosts South Africa will play a warm-up match against Jamaica in Germany today after China, their ini­tial oppon­ents, sud­denly with­drew. The hast­ily arranged game will take place at the Offenbach Kickers Stadium in Frankfurt (18.30 GMT) and comes as a wel­come boost to a Bafana squad bat­tling to find suit­able oppos­i­tion ahead of the 2010 spectacle.

Despite secur­ing a fix­ture against the Jamaicans, South African offi­cials say they will protest to global foot­ball gov­ern­ing body Fifa at China’s fail­ure to hon­our their agree­ment to play against Bafana. Chinese offi­cials have blamed the pul­lout on travel dif­fi­culties caused by the vol­canic ash that severely dis­rup­ted European air traffic over the past few weeks. Continued

South African Sports News – 14 April

Siyabonga Nomvethe

Parreira con­cerned about fit­ness levels ahead of 2010
With the 2010 World Cup less than 60 days away Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is gen­er­ally happy with the pro­gress of his team although he admits their gen­eral fit­ness levels are not where they should be at this stage of pro­ceed­ings. The 67-year-old coach has recently returned from Brazil, where he held a train­ing camp for the national side, which saw them win most of their games against local league sides.

“The one thing that we achieved at the train­ing camp in Brazil was to identify a style of play­ing for the national team,” said Parreira. “The side now have a shape and the play­ers know what is required from them. However, the phys­ical fit­ness should be much higher than where it is now,” he added ... Continued

South African Sports News – 7 April

Katlego Mphela

Bafana return home in good shape
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is con­fid­ent that his team’s pre­par­a­tions for the upcom­ing World Cup in June are going well des­pite Bafana going down 2–1 to Brazilian league side Santos on Saturday in the final match of their Brazilian train­ing camp. The camp star­ted on Sunday, March 7 and ended with the loss to Santos over the week­end, but on the whole Bafana got the bet­ter of their oppos­i­tion win­ning four games, draw­ing three and los­ing just one dur­ing their four week stay in the South American coun­try. Continued

South African Sports News – 31 March

Gert Schalkwyk

Bafana camp a suc­cess – Parreira
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira believes the first two weeks of his team’s train­ing camp in Brazil have been suc­cess­ful. The South Africans are in the South American coun­try on a month-long pre­par­a­tion for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, which starts in June.

They have played seven matches on their Brazilian tour so far, win­ning five and draw­ing two. Bafana defeated a stub­born Ponte Preta out­fit 2–1 in their most recent out­ing, which took place at the Estadio Moises Lucarelli in Campinas, Sao Paolo last Wednesday. Goals from mid­fielder Surprise Moriri and sub­sti­tute Gert Schalkwyk (pic­tured) set up the vic­tory for the vis­it­ors ... Continued

South African Sports News – 24 March

Siphiwe Tshabalala

Bafana tick all the right boxes
Bafana Bafana’s pre­par­a­tions for the Fifa World Cup in June are going well. The South Africans have already played six matches on their tour of Brazil so far and with an impress­ive record of four wins and two draws, which includes 13 goals and none con­ceded, it’s clear that the South Africans are mov­ing in the right dir­ec­tion under the tutor­ship of coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.

On Saturday, Bafana defeated Brazilian league side Botafogo 1–0 at the Engenhao Stadium cour­tesy of a goal from Siphiwe Tshabalala (pic­tured right). Tshabalala’s goal was his fourth in five matches and came from a free kick after a sus­tained period of pres­sure from the South Africans. Continued

South African Sports News – 17 February

Alviro Petersen

Proteas on the ropes in Kolkata
Just when every­one thought the Proteas were back to their win­ning ways after their con­vin­cing innings and six run vic­tory over India in Nagpur last week, a famil­iar weak­ness returned to haunt them in the second test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata yes­ter­day. The Proteas found them­selves with their backs to the wall on six without loss in their second innings at stumps on day three and have to bat for two full days to save the match after trail­ing by a mam­moth 347 runs on the first innings.

There is cer­tainly no way that Graeme Smith’s men can win this match after a hor­rendous first innings bat­ting col­lapse which saw them crash from a prom­ising 218/2 to a dis­mal 296 all out. It was an all to famil­iar occur­rence for the South Africans who have suffered sim­ilar col­lapses in the past, most recently their meek capit­u­la­tion against England in last December’s Durban test ... Continued