What I learnt from watching Bafana Bafana vs Mali

At the highest level the margins between success and failure are small. Any small errors can cost a team dearly. For 45 minutes South Africa, played a game model of building up from the back and playing through the thirds.  A methodology representing the strengths of our players, mimicking the game model which has made Mamelodi Sundowns a force to be reckoned with on the African continent. Hugo Broos, started with seven players who ply their trade for Mamelodi Sundowns.I agree with the coach’s call on this one, as its easier to develop non verbal communication with players who play for the same club. I cant fault the coach on this one, this is exactly how Spain won the World Cup in 2010, having had seven players from Barcelona in the starting line up.

The margin of error came from the missed penalty from Percy Tau. That opportunity alone could have swung the pendulum and boosted morale and team chemestry. The build up worked in the first half, but the experience and physicality of the Malian press in the 2nd half prevailved, as they had on average three players pressing around Bafana’s defensive third. We were unable to fully build up from the back in the 2nd half. For a lack of a better term in the 2nd half Bafana were caught wanting. Struggling to get out their own half.Additionally,  playing it long over the top would have been passing the ball to the Malian players because of their height and physical dominance.

You see, when you compete against a physical team, its important to have game intelligence, technique and speed of execution. Bafana have displayed countless times that at the highest level were there is time and space constraints, that we are not good enough technically. There is a big gap between playing your trade in the CAF Champions league and playing in Europe. The power house nations on the continent have players playing in Europe and within the top five leagues. Against Mali, we had no players playing abroad in a big five league.  

Well how do we fix the situation that we in? Well we require a long term approach to development. We need to stop taking short cuts. A long term strategy that focuses on developing players from grassroots level up. A change of reargaurd is also required at SAFA, Danny Jordaan, has been given ample time to develop South African Football and its now time for someone with fresh ideas to take up the mantle, hopefully a football person. How will we accelarate development faster. Well here are a few elements that require attention in the next 15 years:

1.      School football needs an uplift: we currently have a football league that is not tapping into the opportunities of grassroots football and school football. There is 26,000 schools in the country and less than a third have functioning school football programme. Also many of these schools play football qaurterly, so players miss out on a large portion of the season. Simply put, school football is the first place that’s safe for a six year old to be introduced to football. We currently sitting with a situation in South Africa whereby many children are introduced to the game of football at U12s from their local Football Association. In developed countries their players have a head start of up to six years. In Japan, the football season is year round and the players move from a very competitive school outdoor season to Futsal in the winter.  

2.      Foundation phase football : we need to start developing programmes from pre to pro. Not many Professional Clubs in South Africa have a programme from 5 years old that’s designed to for young players to master the ball. Our current system in failing to address the technical deficiencies of our youngest players. If we develop more players technically through ball mastery and age appropriate small sided games we will increase the talent pool as the least developed player gets better. Its simple really, you can’t play in the ochestra if you havnt mastered the instrument.

3.      Futsal ; nothing puts a player, more under pressure than futsal. That’s how players learn to grow technically and is a critical ingredient in the development of Brazilain football players. It is a proven method which works and something that South Africa needs to explore to develop our youth especially from U5- U15s. Currently at the highest level South African players cant cope under pressure. The majority of Spanish schools have Futsal arenas in then and this has resulted in Spain winning the FIFA World Cup in 2010 and two Futsal World Cups. Players touch the ball up to 400% more in Futsal than in the outdoor game.

4.      Coach education: we need to develop tailor made coaching courses that focus on the youth development of our players. It should be manditory that youth coaches in South Africa have acquired coaching courses such as the Coerver coaching youth diploma or content related to maximal training if they aspire to coach in youth football. Furthermore, advanced knowledge in sport science and pedagogy will go a long way.

5.      Playing philosophy; I could see the playing philosophy, in South Africa in the first half dominated by the methodology of Mamelodi Sundown’s style of play. Based on possession, ball circulation, and calculated entries into the oppositions final third. We need the players that grow up in the South African development system to learn these specific traits and learn to circulate the ball on the ground faster. What I didn’t see enough of yesterday was the 1vs1 penetration from players like Percy Tau. A playing philosophy is a blue print of how we ought to do things as a country. No matter which coach we bring in, without a blue print we are in trouble because culture will eat strategy for breakfast any day.

6.      Lack of synergy between the league and national association: I feel for Hugo Broos, who having tried a few times to get a meeting with the club coaches in the PSL failed. We have to many egos in South Africa who do not have national interest at heart. We need to change this if we are to ever compete in the global stage. Even at grassroots level we still have friction as to which organisation is responsible for school football between the Department of Arts, Sport and Culture and The Department of Basic Education, with SAFA also dragging thier feet in this domain.

If we attend to the above and have a long term solution to it then half our troubles will be solved in the next 15 years. Yes that’s the sad truth, 15 years because we need a new generation of players to come through the system for us to even think of competing at AFCON and qualifying for the World Cup. We need to get away from the mentality of form, and realise that class is perminant. In our current situation we don’t have any world class players.

By Sithembiso Nkosi