In spite of a dismal looking record in the Confederation Cup (One win in the whole tournament), Bafana Bafana under the leadership of Joel Santana proved that they have what it takes to stand up to the top football nations in the world and give them stick.
And stick is exactly what Spain and Brazil received (Spain twice).
Sadly Bafana was not rewarded with a victory in the final stages of the tournament and managed to finish 4th in the tournament behind Brazil, USA and Spain.
However I am still proud to say that it took 3 miracle goals to beat bafana in the 3rd/4th play-off and one of the best freekicks I’ve seen by Brazil to take us out of the semi-final.
Mphela played a magical game in the 3rd/4th play-off and put through one of the best freekicks under pressure in the final movement of a football match to take the game in to extra time (which we then lost).
Bafana has a good platform to start working from for the 2010 world cup coming our way next year. We are in a great position to look at how we played against 2 of the top 5 teams in the world of football. Joel Santana deserved a win, but let’s be honest he’s finally made South Africa look like a team, play like a team and become supported like a national team by a nation.
I actually watched almost all of the Bafana Bafana vs New Zealand Confederations Cup match last night.
I was impressed (which is why I watched most of the game) with the skill of the players on our team. I was impressed that we could score goals. Scoring goals has been a major issue of ours over the past few years. It seems we have found the net, eventually.
I was incredibly impressed with our defensive line. Booth, the man is massive and a towering figure (who occasionally needs to get in to the box and head the ball a bit more often) who holds up the defense brilliantly. Our midfield came to the party and fed brilliant ball to the striker and star of the evening, Bernard Parker, who put away two great goals and should’ve had more.
Personally I felt that Steven Pienaar was the man of the match (and also a member of my team, Everton, in the English Premier League). He played out of his boots, was aggressive and practical when feeding and holding on to the ball.
All in all a great performance rewarded with a 2-0 victory. Sadly the All Whites were yet again beaten and will probably be knocked out of the Confederations cup. Oh well.
