Africa

Many observers inside and outside of South Africa worry whether the country will be able to pull off the Fifa World Cup in 2010. South Africa will be fine. There will be occasional stumbles, and the masses descending on South Africa will have to deal with periodic glitches that might frustrate those expecting another Germany, but the country will do a good job presenting the best of South Africa to the world.

But perhaps more pressing for South African football fans is whether or not their national team, Bafana Bafana, will be ready after several years of crushingly disappointing seasons. Their 3-2 victory Wednesday over highly touted Cameroon in the Nelson Mandela Challenge, their fourth straight international win, sends signals that the national program might be headed in the right direction in the run-up not only to 2010, but also to the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup, which the South Africans will also host as a trial run for 2009.

It was a good weekend to be a South African sports fan as both Bafana Bafana and the Springboks won big international matches. Bafana Bafana defeated Equatorial Guinea 4-1 in a game that serves as a qualifying match for the African Cup of Nations. It also was part of the World Cup Qualifying process, but of course South Africa, as hosts, receive an exemption. The Springboks, meanwhile, handled a good Wales team handily, 43-17, in Peter De Villiers’ debut as the national rugby team’s head coach. 

The head coach of Bafana Bafana, Alberto Parreira, has resigned to spend time with his sick wife. When officials from the South African Football Association (SAFA) announce Parreira’s successor on May 6, many expect that they will settle on another Brazilian, Joel Santana. Naturally SAFA and the country’s rabid fan base hope to ease the transition, as the next few years will be crucial in South African soccer circles, as th4e next coach will presumably lead Bafana Bafana into the 2010 World Cup, which the country is, of course, hosting. Recent years have been unkind to South African football, which has declined significantly since Bafana Bafana’s 1996-1997 heyday. Perhaps Santana will be the man to lead the team and thus the country to glory. The Springboks and Proteas seem to have garnered the bulk of media attention in recent years, both for their successes and their controversies, and yet in the end, the masses of South Africans love football and Bafana Bafana foremost.

In a game in which both Bafana Bafana and their Senegalese opponents needed a win (plus some help) to advance in the African Nations Cup, the two teams fought to a 1-1 draw, thus knocking one another out of the tournament. South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has his work cut out for him if his charges are to continue the history of host team successes in the World Cup and if Bafana Bafana is to be the African team that quadrennially strikes fear into the hearts of the more traditional powers. There is time yet — two-plus years is an eternity in international sport. But as of right now, South Africa’s most popular national team does not measure up.

Let’s forget, if at all possible, the power outages, political debates, Robert Mugabe’s destabilizing jackassery, and all of the other mundane grimness that afflicts South African public life these days. For the world of sport provides two of the saddest stories of all. The first is the fact that Bafana Bafana appears set to bow out of the African Nations Cup with barely a peep barring some sort of freak miracle involving St. Jude smiling upon their boots (and frowning upon some others). It seems like a long way from the rarefied air South African football seemed to occupy in the period from 1996 to 1998 or so.  If the possibility of a flameout from the country’s footballers isn’t enough to arouse paroxysms of frustration (and drinking) then the impending retirement of Protea Shaun Pollack will push most fans of South Africa’s sporting scene over the edge.

It has been a good weekend for South African sport. The Springboks took on England and after a slow first half — they actually trailed 17-19 at the break — came on strong in the second and pounded England again, 55-22. Bryan Habana and Pierre Spies, both stars for the Northern Bulls, scored two tries on their home pitch at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, and fullback Percy Montgomery finished with 18 points. New Zealand pummelled this year’s World Cup hosts, France, 42-11 yesterday, indicating that the Southern hemisphere’s rugby teams are set to assert their dominance in Europe later this year, although in 1999 New Zealand famously hammered Fance in a test match only to have France come back at that year’s World Cup and hand New Zealand a loss in one of world rugby’s epic games.

Pierre Spies:

Bryan Habana:

Meanwhile on the soccer pitch South Africa throttled Chad in an African Nations Cup qualifier in Durban.  Sibusiso Zuma scored twice for Bafana Bafana, which has fallen on hard times in recent years but is looking forward to returning to its mid-to-late 90s glory as South Africa prepares to host the World Cup in 2010.

Sibusiso Zuma: