SA’s rugged road to Russia
The outcome could have been worse given the number of improving African teams desperate to book a place at the World Cup, says Mazola Molefe
|||Johannesburg - Shakes Mashaba might be concentrating on helping a Bafana Bafana side made up mostly of the Under-23 team jetting off to the Olympics in Rio a bit later in the year to win the Cosafa Cup in Namibia on Saturday afternoon, but his attention would have been split following the draw for the group phase of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers on Friday night.
It was confirmed in Cairo, at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) headquarters, that Bafana will have to battle it out with Burkina Faso, Cape Verde and Senegal for a place at the global showpiece in Russia in Group B.Only the group winners advance to the World Cup and the qualifiers, with each team playing home and away, will begin in October, a month after the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers are concluded.
South Africa were not seeded for the draw and were placed in Pot 3 because of their Fifa ranking.
The outcome could have been worse given the number of improving African teams desperate to book a place at the World Cup, but the final results of Group D perhaps give Mashaba hope that he can meet his mandate of taking Bafana to Moscow.He has already failed in one of his tasks, with South Africa missing out on next year’s Afcon finals in Gabon, so the pressure is on for adequate preparation ahead of trips to Burkina Faso, Cape Verde and Senegal.Bafana are no strangers to their upcoming opponents, but their encounters, whether in friendly matches or qualifiers, have often been feisty.
South Africa are the second-lowest ranked national team in the group, being placed 66th by Fifa.Senegal were pitted alongside Bafana in the group stage of last year’s Afcon tournament in Equatorial Guinea and held Mashaba’s men to a 1-1 draw at the Estadio de Mongomo, overpowering them with their physicality to get the edge.Bafana finished bottom of that group, which also included Algeria and Ghana, without a victory.
The two sides faced off again in September last year in the Nelson Mandela Challenge, with South Africa winning by a solitary goal. Cape Verde also played to a goalless draw with Bafana in the 2013 edition of the continental competition held in South Africa.It was the opening game of the competition at FNB Stadium and it was not pretty.
Over the years, Bafana have also had a rivalry with Burkina Faso, and Mashaba will want to believe these are winnable matches when the road to Moscow begins officially.
2018 World Cup CAF qualification groups:
GROUP A: Tunisia, DR Congo, Guinea, Libya
GROUP B: Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia
GROUP C: Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, GabonGROUP
GROUP D: Senegal, Cape Verde, South Africa, Burkina Faso
Saturday Star