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Super start, but praise on hold
26/03/2007 13:49 - (SA)
George Dearnaley
Firstly, playing away is always difficult. Playing away in Africa, is even more difficult because of the lack of facilities, poor accommodation, concern over foodstuffs and drinking water and the threat of intimidation and violence in some of the war-torn places.
So let me start by saying the recent 3-0 win over Chad away from home was a fantastic result for Bafana Bafana.
Winning is great, but scoring three and keeping a clean sheet are all additional achievements for a team that has become everyone's favourite social responsibility project.
It also marks the start of Carlos Alberto Parreira's tenure as Bafana coach for an official match - the recent friendly against Swaziland doesn't count.
Long may it continue in this form.
But I would hasten to add that we shouldn't get carried away by this result - it is after all against Chad.
Yard-stick
Up until Saturday I would guess that more than enough South African football fans had never heard of Chad.
So beating them isn't exactly the yard-stick we want to use to measure our development as an African football power.
When we start beating the likes of Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana, then we can start singing the praises of the coach and the team on a more regular basis.
But we will take a win over anyone at this time, so another valuable three points towards Nations Cup qualification and a step in the right direction.
I also thought the team selection was very good, with a nice balance of hardened internationals and some fresh talent added to change the look and shape of the team.
Sibusiso Zuma showed that age is just a number - he ran his heart out and got the third goal as reward for his efforts.
Experience
I hope this is a lesson for those fans who think a player should retire once he reaches 30.
International football relies on experience and there are very few 20-year olds running around with enough experience to do the job at international level.
Fernandez, Mokoena, Pienaar, Buckley, and Morris - these players are the core of the team for the next few years.
Add in players like Benni McCarthy, Dillon Sheppard and possibly Lerato Chabangu and you have a nucleus to work with for 2010.
Top dogs
It is important that the players keep their feet on the ground, and I am sure that Parreira is not going to be sitting back after beating Chad.
This is a man who is used to beating Argentina, Italy and the rest of the top dogs (maybe not recently...)
He will get the players focused on their next match - a friendly against Bolivia - and he will want to come out of that game knowing his preparations are on step closer to the finished product.
Well done gents! We are starting to believe in you again.
George is the publisher of Kick Off soccer magazine and represented South Africa during the 1994 World Cup qualifiers.
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