Mashaba makes hopes dip for Cameroon tie

Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba has not inspired confidence in the focus he is displaying on the job at hand, giving the impression of spending more time arguing with journalists than planning to fight the opposition ahead of the two biggest matches of his tenure.

The national team were set to leave on Thursday morning for Limbe for Saturday’s first of two Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers against Cameroon. They meet the Indomitable Lions again in Durban on Tuesday night.

With one point from two matches — a home draw against Gambia, and 3-1 away defeat to Mauritania — Bafana must win both matches to preserve their chances of reaching Gabon 2017.

On Wednesday, at a media conference at Safa House to announce a new travel partnership between the South African Football Association and South African Airways, Mashaba refused to speak to sports journalists about Bafana’s two crucial approaching matches.

This followed Mashaba picking fights with journalists at Bafana training on Tuesday, continuing in his now established tradition of butting heads with the media.

The day before, Mashaba had admitted not having done research on Cameroon. He made the same admission before the matches against Gambia and Mauritania, and the results were evident.

After the Mauritania defeat, Mashaba said he had not known Bafana would play on an artificial surface in Nouakchott. This week, he admitted he had not been aware that Cameroon had fired one coach (German Volker Finke) in October, and appointed another (Belgian Hugo Broos) six weeks ago, until "people" phoned him about it.

The Bafana coach has gone about things in a characteristic bullish manner. If Bafana are as bullish against Cameroon, no one will mind. If not, there will be questions to answer.

If statistics are anything to go by, Bafana may stand a chance of qualifying as they have tasted defeat on the road only five times in the 24 years of playing the preliminaries of the championship. But rarely in those encounters did they face such a daunting prospect as the Indomitable Lions, who have only lost once at home in qualifiers since 1975.

Mashaba knows his side must avoid back-to-back away defeats if they are to stand any chance of reaching the finals in Gabon next year. Having lost 3-1 at minnows Mauritania in September, that possibility looms.

It would be the first time they have done so since their very first qualification campaign, for the 1994 Afcon, when they were beaten in Zimbabwe (1-4) and Zambia

(0-3) as the side fumbled their way back into international football.

Their other defeats came in Gabon (0-1) in 1999 and Niger (1-2) in 2011.

But a 2-1 victory in the Republic of Congo in 2000, when Thabo Mngomeni scored a wonder-goal and Bradley August added a second, was a real highlight.

They also claimed a fine 1-0 victory in Zambia in 2006, when Pitso Mosimane was the caretaker in charge while the country waited for Carlos Alberto Parreira.

And the victories in Sudan (3-0) and Congo (2-0) in the 2015 qualification campaign, as Mashaba made a fine start to his tenure, also deserve to be applauded.

Bafana’s overall record in Afcon qualifiers has seen them win 20 of their 45 matches home and away, drawing 18 and losing seven.