Joel Santana has been given his marching orders. Does this spell the end for Bafana Bafana and the nation’s dreams of a successful tournament for the home team?

Joel Santana has been relieved of his duty/ resigned from the post, whichever way you wish to look at things, and now the position at the helm of Bafana Bafana’s World Cup hopes lies vacant with a nation full of expectation, poised to hear what happens from here.

Whether firing Santana was the right decision or not will be the fodder of headline spinning journalists until the next controversial story raises its ugly head, and in truth cannot be determined as the right or wrong answer until his successor has made his mark (either more or less successfully. The results had been poor and something had to give.

Is Santana really to blame? The results were below par, granted, but it’s not like we were tipped to win the World Cup before he arrived. Things have been dire for a while, and in defence of Santana I believe he has done no better or worse than his predecessor Carlos Alberto Parreira, who fans still seem to adore despite him bailing ship. What these Brazilian guys brought to the field was a far more mature style of play, that left the fruitless desire for ‘diski’ in the PSL , and play that resembled a far more tactical nature, something that followers of European football would have become accustomed to.

Our passing was far more fluid, less rash and speculative, and at times it seemed that the curse of African 'shibobo' had been replaced with something far more systematic. I’m all for ‘shibobo’s’ and beating the man with charisma and flair, but at the end of the day the game is far more simple than that: put the ball in your opponents net more than they do in yours. On this simple reflection, my how we have failed. We Love the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the way they make defenders look half witted as they glide past them but it’s their name on score sheets that truly reaps accolades. I would put Booth (Boooooth!!!) up front, no matter how clumsy it looked, if he could find the net regularly. There is no replacement for goals- end of story.

Unquestionably, this has been our shortcoming. Many people have hailed our performance in the Confederations Cup, and while as a nation we proved we can host a world class event of such stature, but I feel that the Katlego Mphela strike against Spain managed to leave the truth hidden a veil of naivety.

Was our Confederations Cup really that great?

Played Five – 1 win – 1 draw – 3 losses: We got SO lucky to get where we did. The draw against Iraq was goalless, two goals against New Zealand but if I must be picky it really should have been more and a 2-0 loss to Spain which we apparently look at as a good result – and with those scores we scraped through.

Arguably our best game was against Brazil with Dani Alves snatching the win late in the Game and then the 2nd loss to Spain. 1-0 up and then conceded two goals in quick succession. This allowed Mphela to become a household name with the Best Bafana free kick I have ever seen, before Spain took it in extra time. If you look at the results it really was not that great. We only had the chance to play Spain, and witness this strike of Mphela, because the few contestants in the tournament found us in 3rd and 4th play off having done relatively little.

A lot of people in South Africa, particularly white rugby fans, only really engaged Bafana for the first time in light of the enormity of the event on our shores, but in my eyes it was as close to a carbon copy performance as our last, dismal, African cup of nations outing. Again, we played well, and I believe looked as good, structurally, as anyone out there, but once again could not find the net- this time not getting other results in our favour and bowing out in the group stages.

The point here is that this shortage of goals is not a new occurrence, and the poor results of late that have led to Santana’s sacking, epitomise the shortfall in our Bafana side over the last few years. The Brazilians brought a more educated look to the side and for that I truly thank them. It is in that light that I must agree with SAFA’s decision to ‘relieve’ Santana if it is on the grounds that Santana himself is not the culprit, but rather the philosophy in which the Brazilians were instated has been revaluated- and rightly so. In that light, all this talk of Carlos Alberto returning should be left in the rumour mills and we should try something new. Take what we learnt from them, and move on.

‘Where to’ you ask?

I would go African again. You can say everything you want and have all the knowledge you want, but if it cannot be appropriately relayed to the players, and lost in translation, then what’s the point? Terry Paine, Super Sport presenter and world cup winner with England in 1966, I believe summed it up best: He believes we could appoint just about any coach we wanted, but that it would be the appointments of staff made by that coach that would be the most influential. Bring back the South African Legends who have been there and succeeded. Make Shaun Bartlett the striking coach, get Lucas Radebe out of Aqua fresh ads and have him guiding the defence, Andre Arendse as the goalie coach etc. These guys know the South African ways and can relate to the players. They will be coaches, but most importantly they will be mentors. Their experience, in a truly South African context, will be priceless.

We find ourselves at a crossroads in the story that is Bafana Bafana, and if SAFA can make the right choices I believe we may have some very fruitful chapters to come. All is not lost, and talent we definitely have. Add a touch of experience and we will be well on our way. Benni McCarthy would be the Spearhead of my attack- no Brainer!

New coach to be named on Friday...

Bafana Bafana for the win!