South Africa Giant Of African Football - Profile

The Bafana Bafana is unquestionably one of the giants of football in Africa. In recent years they have performed honourably on the world stage, dominated the local scene and featured regularly in FIFA competitions, most notably the 1998 and 2002 World Cup's.

By Ben Coonan

The Bafana Bafana is unquestionably one of the giants of football in Africa. In recent years they have performed honourably on the world stage, dominated the local scene and featured regularly in FIFA competitions, most notably the 1998 and 2002 World Cup's.

The flamboyance and flair that exemplifies South African football has been admired by many following their return to international competition in 1992.

The emergence of exciting talent such as Ajax's Steven Pienaar (pictured above), FC Porto's Benni McCarthy and Manchester United's Quinton Fortune has exited followers of the world game and ensured that the Bafana Bafana remain at the forefront of the African confederation.

However, just recently, the wheels look to have fallen off the proud Bafana Bafana wagon and as they look to Wednesday's friendly with Australia, they are very much looking to rebuild.

Never have South African hopes been as high as they were in Korea in 2002, where the Bafana Bafana fronted for what many believed would be a successful tournament.

After surrendering just two points in their qualifying campaign and boasting the pedigree of European starlets McCarthy, Fortune and Lucas Radebe, many pundits thought that 2002 would signal the beginning of a new and exciting era for South African football.

Unfortunately, whilst some results were encouraging, ultimately, South Africa left the tournament at the conclusion of the group stage.

Highlights included their first World Cup win, 1-0 against Slovenia in Daegu and a pulsating 2-2 draw with Paraguay in Busan.

Since the tournament, South Africa's second at a World Cup finals, the Bafana Bafana have shown only glimpses of their capabilities, most notably, crashing out of the recent African Nations Cup in Tunisia.

They have won twelve of their 23 matches post Korea/Japan, but only one from five in 2004.

A major problem, it would seem, is the continued uncertainty surrounding the head coach position. In the past ten years, the Bafana Bafana have gone through ten coaches, the most recent of which and current coach is Styles Phumo.

However, Phumo's tenure is soon to end with the South African Football Association announcing the likes of Glenn Hoddle, Roger Lemerre and Gianluca Vialli as possible candidates to take hold of the reins almost immediately after Wednesday's clash (Ironically former Socceroo Stuart Baxter has been named as the new coach).

Phumo assumed charge on the eve of the African Nations Cup in January when then coach Ephraim Mashaba was fired under a cloud of player unrest.

The bulk of South Africa's big name stars had announced their international retirement in the lead up to the tournament, citing Mashaba as the primary reason.

These included McCarthy, Fortune, German based defender Bradley Carnell, goalkeeping veteran Hans Vonk and Charlton Athletic duo Shaun Bartlett and Mark Fish.

Since Mashaba's departure, many have signalled their intention to be welcomed back into the international fold and a number have been included in Phumo's squad to take on the Socceroos.

After first meeting in 1947 in Sydney, where the Bafana Bafana triumphed 2-1, the Socceroos have met with South Africa 18 times in total, winning five and drawing one of those encounters.

Most recently, the Socceroos lost 2-0 to the South Africans in Johannesburg in 1996 with a squad that featured current Socceroos Zeljko Kalac and Tony Popovic.

For South Africa, Shaun Bartlett also featured and will no doubt be looking to contribute to a similar scoreline on Wednesday.

Remarkably, more current Socceroos were on show in 1994, when South Africa came to Australia for a two match series in which Australia won both matches 1-0.

Kalac was once again involved, but so to were Mark Schwarzer, Tony Vidmar, Paul Okon, Mark Viduka and Stan Lazaridis.

So where to now for South Africa?

With a FIFA World Ranking of 39 and a soccer mad population of over 40 million cheering the men in white home, it is hard to imagine South Africa staying in their current lull for too much longer.

June 2004 will see the Bafana Bafana ignite their quest for World Cup qualification once more where they face a tough group including Cape Verde Islands, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Congo DR and Uganda.

With their stars on board and a team unified in purpose, we will be sure to hear the roar of the Bafana Bafana once more.