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 Can 'the messiah' save Bafana?
    Kevin McCallum
    November 05 2009 at 10:56AM 		Get IOL on your
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  • Gallery: Parreira back!

    The saviour landed at OR Tambo International this morning and the desperate men of Safa arrived to carry his cross for him across the threshold.



    A bemused bunch of Roman soldiers - sorry, South African football writers - marched into the arrivals hall armed with spears and swords to prod and poke at Carlos Alberto Parreira, picking which of his sides they will eventually pierce.

    'It will take more than a well-paid Brazilian to sort out South African football'
    It's been, oh, 18 months since the arrival of a football coach was greeted with such confusion, such scepticism, such abject mistrust. Safa have been at pains to tell the nation that King Carlos was the best option to take over from Joel Santana, but no one believes them - I doubt they believe it themselves.

    It is hard to take anything Safa say at face value these days. They manage to combine the bluster of Julius Malema, the self-serving prattle of Glenn Agliotti and the decision-making skills of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang into one bewildering beast.
    Continues Below ↓





    They have never directly admitted that the hiring of Joel Santana was a monstrous and expensive mistake, and are seemingly intent on trying to hide the size of that error by chucking Parreira at the problem and hoping it will go away.

    It will take more than a well-paid Brazilian to sort out South African football, though - it needs to be gutted and rebuilt. But that will never happen.

    So Carlos, who was once called the king and is now considered a jackal, is back to lead South Africa to the promised land of a second-round place at next year's World Cup. He will, he said, sort out Bafana by recalling Benni McCarthy, which, from the looks of the size of Benni on the telly the other night, might mean merely having to call the nearest McDonald's.

    'a land wonders whether he can pull off a miracle'
    While he's on the blower, he might want to ask Benni if he's seen Ricky Januarie. I have no idea, and I would venture that Safa have no idea either, as to just how Parreira plans to sort out Bafana in time for next year.

    Santana's selection policy was seemingly to pick Steven Pienaar and 10 others to fill in around him. He gave the highly overrated Teko Modise more caps than he deserved as he was horribly found out at the Confederations Cup as a one-footed flop. All opposing defences did to nullify him was shepherd him on to his left foot, which took away his one weapon - his right foot. He ran sideways across the pitch from right to left utterly confused - hey, this doesn't happen in the PSL.

    Why is there this obsession with things Brazilian in South African football? This nonsense we hear of the "flair" of African football is no more than a dream, a myth built up during the years of isolation. The logic is thus: Brazilian football has flair, therefore we must have someone Brazilian to allow us to play with flair.

    Let us not be fooled, isolation affected South African football as much as it did rugby and cricket. It became introverted and infatuated with the notion that the step-over, the tricks and showing off were entertainment. Playing to the crowd became almost as important as playing for the victory, which is just plain daft when it comes to professional sport. The difference between a step-over by, say, Cristiano Ronaldo and one by Modise, is that the Real Madrid midfielder's purpose is to befuddle and create space; in South Africa a big "oooh" from the crowd is deemed reward enough.

    Besides, Brazilian football has not relied on flair for success for years. Ronaldo - the one with the buck teeth - was a direct centre forward who would score with a toe poke if necessary, as he did in the semifinals of the World Cup in 2002 against Turkey. Dunga, a tough, no nonsense bugger, has moulded his team as a bunch of tough, no nonsense buggers, who feed off the intelligence of Kaka - flair is only employed when it can return a profit.

    Luiz Felipe Scolari was of a similar bent, a stern authoritarian. In 2002 he gave each member of the Brazilian team Sun Tzu's "The Art of War". They were not ranked as a favourite in Japan, but by building a strong defensive base around his captain, Cafu, beat Germany in the final.

    So, the Messiah has arrived and a land wonders whether he can pull off a miracle. If Parreira cannot coax a semblance of form out of South Africa, who will Safa blame then?

    • Showing page 1 of 3 comment pages, 24 total comments
    2 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
    Nice column but the less said about Benni the better, the guy makes me sick with his ego.Surely there are other better strikers in South Africa beside him.As for Teko I hope he has realised that he is not the mega star that everyone has made him to be
    2 Weeks ago Anthony Perry wrote :
    Mr Mc Callum, you marsupial you. Why bring The Lord name (Messiah and Saviour) into disrepute. Is your intellect that limited. Get a life !
    2 Weeks ago StarangWondah wrote :
    Don't want to comment about Benni than he is our top goal score of all time and his the best striker we've had in the best part of the last decade. I like the selection of Kermit, Parreira was the 1st coach to call up this youngster even before he played for the Under 20.Clearly showing Santana had not pedigree to coach, as he never selected this player... Please can someone tell what is Teko Modise doing in the squad???His battling for form and I don't think choosing him will improve his morale.
    2 Weeks ago Ta Wise wrote :
    I can bet you are a chiefs suppoter, why on earth do you single out TEKO??? Bafana is dead just like a last kick of a dying horse they are never gonna recover its better we start focussing on the amajita crop for the 2014 brazil world cup than these headless chickens.PERIOD
    2 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
    Neither Benni nor Wayne Roonie can save Bafana's chances at 2010. What's ailing Bafana is ailing the whole country. I just don't have a name for it, but the bottomline is that the spirit is lacking. It is dead! Too much political rubbish going on has most people feeling disillusioned. Its a pity ntate Mandela is too old to awaken the spirit. The current leadership of the nation is weak and is hellbend on taking us all down with them. They can't even rally the nation behind Bafana because their hearts and minds are elsewhere - lining their pockets at the expense of all.
    2 Weeks ago Janus wrote :
    You must be joking! Parreira could not come close to the 2002 World Cup when he had a brilliant Berazilian squad of players at his disposal. So why in heaven's name should we all hail him as a saviour. He's here to line his pockets, he probably has a lsit of a dozen excuses in his briefcase already. As a defensive type strategy (what a 5-4-1 combo?) coach we are wasting our time. Get Ruud Hiddink to sort out the mess, he will do so in 6 months. These two cowboys we have paid millions for have proved to be a waste of our money. As one of the pommy fans stated - "Bafana will brekl the world record for the quickest exit to a World Cup ever experienced by a host team".
    2 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
    YOU HAVE GOOD POINTS BUT, YOUR USE OF CHRISTIANITY TO DRIVE MESSAGE HOME IS OFFENDING .ESPECIALLY TO US CHRISTIANS - IS IT BECAUSE YOU ARE A MUSLIM.IF NOT USE MOHAMMED OR ALLAH NEXT TIME YOU WANT TO EMPHSIZE YOUR POINT AND, I TELL YOU NOW - YOU WILL NEVER WRITE AGAIN. MARUAPULA
    2 Weeks ago thomas payne wrote :
    blackburn are looking to dump benni in the upcoming transfer window. if *i* know this, then parreira certainly has to know this. if they can't dump him on a premiership club, look for him to be playing for either newcastle, west brom, or southampton come 15 jan. ... i think that parreira should have brought some people up from amajita for the next couple of games. it's really ridiculous that countries like ghana, cote d'ivoire and especially senegal have better training facilities than are available here. [why haven't they gotten farther in the world cup? because many of their elite athletes, until now, have passport-shopped so that their relatives can have entree to job opportunities to europe -- see, they use their salaries playing football in europe to pay for the educaiton of entire villages "back home". then, after getting citizenship, they sponsor these educated people to come to europe for further their education. that's the kind of ubuntu that does not exist in south africa, and probably never will. their governments, however, have basically bribed them to stop doing this and basically have said they will foot the bill for students to go to school in europe and america as long as they come back.
    2 Weeks ago Faroukh Mcaine wrote :
    Why coudn't he save BafanaBafana first ime he was here? Why couldn't he take the team to AFCON in Angola? Why didn't he save the local team he was coaching in Brazil? Why is Benni not rescuing Blackburn Rovers now? Why is he benched? If he is good enough for a national team, why is Blackburn Rovers transferring him? Are these two individuals the only people who know more about soccer than anyone else in this world? Can someone provide answers for all these questions!
    2 Weeks ago rusty wrote :
    ok so all you "holier than thou" people are perfect people? and that no-one is allowed to say anything about your relgion and how perfect it is..never mind the shocking histroty of it all.. people get a life he was being metaphoric. this king carlos is a money chasin fraud.... what success has he ever had with a nation other than brazil???? and if he was so good howcome until now he was unemployed? if he was so "sought" after then surely he would walk into any coaching job anywhere? but give safa credit they are consistant in picking losers......its really hard to support banana oops i meant bandana.. no man i mean bafoona banana bandana...
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