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Bitter taste to Benni's return
07/09/2007 13:28 - (SA)
Tumo Mokone
Benni McCarthy is a shameless glutton for attention.
His return to the Bafana squad after a 20-month self-imposed exile is more about another opportunity to grease his over-inflated ego, than to help SA win against Zambia on Sunday in Cape Town.
Excluding cases of match-fixing, every player wants to win a match in which they play.
So it is sheer arrogance for McCarthy to act like he is back with the national team because he wants to help the country win.
It is as if other players don't know the importance of winning and that they will discover this desire with his presence in the team.
Granted, Bafana have struggled scoring goals throughout the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying competition, despite being top of their group.
In the same period, McCarthy proved his pedigree as a striker by scoring 19 goals in his first season in the English Premiership at Blackburn Rovers. He scored another goal last Sunday as Blackburn defeated Manchester City 1-0.
It must be noted however that his goalscoring form in the Bafana jersey before his boycott was not up to scratch.
Apart from behind the scenes matters which irritated him in the 2006 ACN finals in Egypt, Benni was generally out of his depth in that tournament, with his physical conditioning a matter of loud whispers.
Another point to be noted is that Benni has entered the second phase of his football career as a striker.
He now thrives as a lurking finisher, with very little contribution to the general creative play in the Blackburn team.
Carefully considered
The question is, while his manager at Rovers, Mark Hughes, does not expect the largely melodramatic player to do a lot of graft work but just pounce on stray offers, will Carlos Alberto Parreira be able to field a team that would be able to create opportunities for McCarthy to finish?
While he must be on a high given his form at Rovers, there are several factors, however, that McCarthy would've carefully considered before returning to the Bafana fold.
Among others:
1. The urgent need to get enough game time in national colours to secure an extension to his work permit with the British Home Office.
2. The presence of CAF executives who will be in Cape Town for the fourth edition of the organisation's 50th anniversary festivities.
3. The choice of Cape Town, his home town, as the match venue for Bafana Bafana for the first time in two years.
4. The absence of current chief striker Sibusiso Zuma through suspension.
5. The possibility of missing out on playing in the ACN finals in Ghana in January.
The third factor may sound frivolous but returning to national duty on his home turf guarantees him a heroes' welcome, while such a move elsewhere, especially in Gauteng, would have been met with resentment.
Most soccer fans are still angry with the manner in which McCarthy has shown the national team the middle finger with impunity. He has had other exile moments in the past, and many people thought this time he had gone too far.
Capacity crowd
With the suspended German-based Zuma on the sidelines, McCarthy is guaranteed an automatic place in the starting line-up, and the opportunity to be the star attraction.
What better opportunity to do so in front of the Confederation of African Football bosses and a capacity crowd at Newlands?
An added spice is that the match will not be solely about Benni's homecoming but also a get-together for five more "brasse vannie Kaap" in the Bafana squad.
These are defenders Bevan Fransman (Moroka Swallows), Brett Evans (Ajax CT) and Greek-based Nasief Morris (Panathinaikos), midfielder Dillon Sheppard (Sundowns) and striker Thembinkosi Fanteni (Ajax CT).
With such a healthy representation by Cape boys, Newlands will be swelling with local pride.
All Bafana need to do on Sunday is to avoid defeat, and automatically qualify for Ghana 2008. (Apologies for jumping the gun in my previous column, which had suggested that SA's qualification was a done deal).
Not counted
The worst result possible would be a 2-0 defeat as that would mean Zambia would finish on top by virtue of better head-to-head results against South Africa.
In such a scenario, SA will then hope to go through as one of the three best runners-up from 11 of the 12 qualifying groups. (Group 12, with three teams, is not counted for the best runner-up scenario.)
SA look good in all departments, though the strikeforce still looks inefficient, despite Benni's presence.
But losing to Zambia is certainly not on the cards.
Otherwise that will mark the biggest upset since the Ted Dumitru-led shenanigans in the 2006 ACN finals in Egypt, where Bafana returned without a point - or even a goal.
Tumo writes exclusively for News24.
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