African Cup of Nations Group A Preview: South Africa

The Bafana Bafana have had a chequered past, to say the least! The national side have only existed in their current format since 1992, after being expelled from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in 1958 due to apartheid. The all-white Football Association of South Africa (FASA) were expelled from FIFA in 1976, after being suspended for over a decade.

In 1991, the new, and more importantly, multi-racial South African Football Association was formed as the apartheid rule was ending, allowing re-admittance to FIFA. South Africa hosted the tournament in 1996 (replacing original hosts Kenya) and won the title in their first ever ACN appearance, defeating Tunisia 2-0 in the final. South Africa were also runners-up in 1998, and finished in third place in 2000.

Since then, their record has been fairly poor, and they haven’t even qualified for the last two tournaments, rather comically in the case of the 2012 qualifiers, as South Africa thought they only needed to draw against Sierra Leone and played for a draw, but it transpired they needed to win and had misunderstood the rules!

We saw in 2010 how passionate the Bafana Bafana are about their football when South Africa hosted the tournament, and how much the support means to the team’s performance. After all, they only failed to get out of a very tough group on goal difference. The vuvuzelas are about to make a comeback to our TV screens!

How Did They Qualify?

Automatically as hosts, taking over from Libya who will now host the 2017 championships.

Manager

Gordon Igesund is no stranger to success and is hoping to bring some success to South Africa, having taken over the national job in June 2012 from previous incumbent, Pitso Mosimane.

He spent his playing career as a striker, and retired in 1984 after a fairly successful spell with Austrian outfit Admira Wacker. He took his first coaching job with South African side African Wanderers in 1995 before moving to Manning Rangers, leading them to the first ever Premier Soccer League title in the 1996/97 season.

Igesund has managed another seven PSL outfits, winning PSL Coach of the Season twice and the PSL title a record-breaking four times. Gordon is clearly no stranger to victory, but can he lead South Africa to glory?

Star Men

Bongani Khumalo has taken over the captaincy after Steven Pienaar’s retirement from international football, and South Africa are pinning a lot of hope onto his young shoulders. The 25 year old centre back moved to Premier League side Spurs, who beat Rangers to his signature in January 2011 after a fantastic spell with Supersport United. Although he has never played for the club, he spent loan spells with Preston and Reading in the Championship, and is currently on loan with PAOK of Greece.

Bongani is believed to be highly rated by Spurs, and will expect to use these championships to show Andre Villas-Boas what he is missing.

Katlego Mphela is nicknamed ‘Killer’ due to his lethal finishing ability and lightning pace, and a international record of 23 goals in 48 games show how he’s earned that moniker. He spent time early in his career in France with Strasbourg and Stade Reims, but his French sojourn didn’t work out for him, and he moved back to South Africa in 2006 with Supersport United.

Since his return, Mphela hasn’t stopped scoring, and with a league record of extremely close to under one goal every two games since 2006, opposing defences must mark him tightly or he’ll punish them time and time again.

Siphiwe Tshabalala

Siphiwe Tshabalala is a name you might remember from the 2010 World Cup, but you might not remember why. THIS is why!

The pacey left winger is the most experienced player in the squad with 70 caps to his name, scoring 10 times. The 28 year old can also play at wing back or in central defence, making him an extremely versatile player to have. He has spent his entire career in South Africa, knocking back lucrative moves to European teams on more than one occasion. Siphiwe will make chances for the South African attack, unless he decides to score another rasper himself!

How far can they go?

A lot of stars like Pienaar, Benni McCarthy and Siyabonga Nomvethe have either retired or fallen out of favour, but there is still some real talent in the squad, and the current odds of approx 9/1 suggest the bookmakers fancy the home team to make a real impact on the tournament.

I see them finishing second behind Morocco in the group stage, leading to a probable quarter-final with Ghana or Mali. Once we reach the knock-out stages, anything can happen! I see them in the semi-finals, where they bow out to a stronger side.

But then, remember what happened last time South Africa hosted these championships…