Let’s not forget about Bafana’s embarrassment

After an indifferent and inconsistent 2015, Bafana Bafana have much to prove in the new year.

The year 2016 is shaping up to be a defining period for South African football. The success of the SA Football Association’s blueprint for the sport – Vision 2022 – and the general progress of the domestic game will be firmly under scrutiny as the country’s top national teams head into important events.

The senior national side – Bafana Bafana – are already under the spotlight after an indifferent and inconsistent 2015, and have much to prove. Needless to say, the future of current head coach Shakes Mashaba will be debated and discussed. His continued stay as coach will certainly depend on how Bafana perform in next year’s 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

In addition, with 2016 being an Olympic year, there will be much focus on the two football squads to have qualified for the global sporting spectacular – the SA Under-23s and the women’s national football side, Banyana Banyana.

The Olympic Games takes place in Rio de Janeiro next year – from August 5 to August 21 – and nothing less than a meritorious, competitive showing will be accepted by the country’s notoriously fickle football followers.

For Bafana, the pressure is already on as far as the 2017 AFCON (to be hosted by Gabon) is concerned. On the back foot after some dismal qualifying performances this year, Bafana are currently bottom of the group. Cameroon lead the pack with six points, followed by Mauritania on three, and Gambia and South Africa both on one point.

Who can forget the embarrassment of Bafana losing 3-1 to little-known Mauritania in Nouakchott in September?

And the pressure to secure a place at the 2017 AFCON tournament doesn’t lessen next year. Bafana’s next qualifier in the campaign is against group leaders Cameroon in Yaounde on March 25, with the return leg scheduled for March 29 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.

Also, even more importantly, in 2016, will be the qualifying campaign for the prestigious Fifa World Cup in 2018, which will be hosted by Russia.

Bafana managed to make it to the final 20 African countries – by beating Angola 4-1 on aggregate over two legs – and the key aspect now will be to see just who Mashaba’s men will be drawn against.

The 20 teams will be drawn into five groups of four teams each, with only the winner of each group sealing a spot at football’s grandest stage in three years’ time.

The draw for the qualifying groups takes place on June 24 at the headquarters of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo.

And, with Bafana plunging down the Fifa world rankings – currently at 75th – they won’t be seeded, which means they will definitely be grouped with some of the top African countries.

Each season always tends to shine the spotlight on a player. In the past, Dean Furman and Andile Jali quickly rose to prominence with Bafana and now, in the last few months, Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Bongani Zungu is the man everybody is talking about.

He’s been in superb form for club and country, with European clubs in Portugal and Germany showing great interest in acquiring his services.

For the SA U23s, there will have to be vast improvement if they are to come away from the Rio Olympics with any measure of success. While they managed to make it to the event by finishing third in the qualifying tournament in Senegal last month, they certainly never impressed. Some would suggest they were very fortunate to get there.

But there is no doubting the talent and quality in the U23 squad, they just need to start playing to potential.

As for Banyana, the appointment of Vera Pauw as coach last year has brought greater stability and belief to the squad, hence the rapid strides the team has made. The Rio Olympics is the ideal stage to test the progress of the women’s game in South Africa. - Cape Argus