Shakes Mashaba
Shakes Mashaba will not have great memories of Cameroon. But you can bet the Bafana Bafana coach is plotting to create positive ones this weekend.
Whether he is going about it the right way is debatable, Bra Shakes once again declaring himself not interested in having information on the opposition.
As South Africa seek to keep their 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualification hopes alive by getting a good result out in Limbe on Saturday, Mashaba will no doubt remember how a trip to the central African country back in 1999 killed off his dream of automatically qualifying for the Olympics.
In charge of the national Under-23 side then, Mashaba was hamstrung by the people who should have strengthened him - his employers, the South African Football Association (Safa).
Safa shockingly declared that the likes of Benni McCarthy and Quinton Fortune - who had already graduated to the senior national team though still a part of Amaglug-glug - should rather play for the senior side and not travel to Cameroon.
The decision brought about disastrous results as Mashaba’s team lost their match there and their chance to top a group that also included Ghana and Guinea.
I can still remember a livid Mashaba later that evening sitting in the hotel foyer and lamenting the folly of Safa’s decision. That event marked the beginning of a sour relationship between the coach and his bosses resulting in that melodramatic ranting and raving by Mashaba at the Vosloorus Stadium after he’d eventually led the Under-23s to qualification via the play-off route at the expense of New Zealand.
And it is perhaps that memory that has seen Mashaba, incredibly, leaving out the country’s in-form player of the moment Keegan Dolly out of his squad.
Mashaba has reasoned that Dolly is more needed at Under-23 level where coach Owen Da Gama and his boys will be out in Brazil this weekend for a friendly game ahead of the Olympics in that country later this year.
Really though? Surely having the best players for a competitive match is more important? Mashaba himself said so back in 1999 when Safa literally cut off their nose to spite their face. But then again he is the man in charge and he knows what it is he is doing.
Most of us though are slightly worried that the coach does not seem to have learnt much from the earlier rounds of these qualifiers when his “I’ll prepare my team and not bother myself about the opposition” approach backfired badly against Mauritania.
Yes, you shouldn’t obsess about the opposition. But when you are not Barcelona who can dictate play against just about everyone, it only makes sense you have an idea of the team you will be up against. For his (and Bafana’s) sake, let’s hope Cameroon doesn't derail him again. - The Star
