It is almost a year since Pitso Mosimane ascended to the Bafana Bafana throne, but such has been his success that it seems he’s been in charge for longer.
Mosimane took over from Carlos Alberto Parreira in July last year amid uncertainty and doubts over whether he could really turn around the fortunes of a team who’d been associated with failure in the last five years.
He was never a unanimous choice, bizarrely, even within the ranks of the SA Football Association in spite of having been coerced from leaving SuperSport United at the end of 2006 to serve as an “understudy” to Parreira by the Safa hierarchy.
It is thus not surprising that when he reflected back on his year-long stint at the helm this week, Mosimane recalled having much to prove to his detractors, who included those who bemoaned the fact that the Bafana post was not advertised but “handed” to him after the World Cup. Almost a year later, South Africa are enjoying their best ranking in over a decade; they are on the brink of African Nations Cup qualification and generally produce decent football.
“Proving suitable for this post was a huge personal challenge. There were a lot of people who didn’t believe I could do this job. There were so many doubters but I knew I would prove myself. I have never doubted my capabilities, but I understood at the time that I shouldn’t talk back – I could only be judged on results,” Mosimane said.
He was also fully aware of the politics associated with a young African coach taking over the national side.
“If you’re black you have to deal with a lot of perceptions and stereotypes. Had I failed when I got here, I would have failed a lot of people and confirmed that those who have wrong perceptions about us – that we can’t do this job – would succeed.
“There’s a wrong mentality of not believing in local black coaches, some sort of mental colonialism, and that’s bad for our football.
“Also, the other perception was that senior national players won’t listen to a local black coach. But I was encouraged by what Shakes Mashaba did during his tenure. He inspired me because I could see he got results. We are also getting results. It is not by luck that we moved from position 58 in the world to the current 38. We were also placed 19th on the continent.
“Today we are fourth.”
Mosimane has more than answered his critics by sending Bafana to the top of their Nations Cup qualifying group – and that’s not just any group. It contains seven-time champions Egypt, who were expected to easily overcome the challenge of South Africa, Niger and Sierra Leone – the three teams who were ranked way below the mighty Pharaohs when qualifying began last September.
Yet, Mosimane has looked with pride at the Group G standings, seeing Bafana leading the pack after four pool matches with an unbeaten defence and just a single win away from securing the ticket to the continental finals taking place in Equatorial Guinea/Gabon next year.
Given the disaster that was the 2010 Nations Cup qualifying campaign under the clueless Joel Santana, Mosimane is on the cusp of a remarkable achievement.
Milking four points off Egypt should surely rank as the highlight of his coaching career, although bigger goals lie in wait at next year’s finals.
“Of course, beating Egypt in March was a highlight for me, but even the draw in Cairo last week was up there. I’d say, also the 0-0 result from Sierra Leone was another big achievement,” he said.
No Bafana coach had managed a victory in previous official clashes with the Pharaohs, but Mosimane’s charges scored a famous last-gasp win at Coca-Cola Park in the first round tie to help fast-track Egypt’s demise as a force, which was further confirmed with last Sunday’s draw in Cairo.
But even as he sits on the brink of fulfilling one part of his mandate – that of leading the country to the continental finals – Mosimane has had some regrets and recriminations over the last year. “I feel we could have done even better. The lowest point of my reign thus far was the failure to beat Niger by more goals. A 2-0 scoreline was not a true reflection of the game. We would have been strong on goal difference by now, seeing that Niger have emerged as our main competitors for the top position.”
Bafana next play a friendly on August 10, with Mosimane looking for opposition which would closely resemble Niger, whom SA visit in September.
“We need to go there and confirm qualification. I can’t believe that both Egypt and Sierra Leone lost there. If we give the same performance we did against Egypt, we will win in Niger. The worst possible result for us would be a draw.
“I don’t think we’ll lose there,” the Bafana trainer said confidently.
While guiding SA to the 2012 finals has been top priority, Mosimane has also displayed strong leadership in revitalising the team. He ended several international careers, such as those of MacBeth Sibaya, Siyabonga Nomvete and Surprise Moriri, but arguably his biggest decision yet was to finally confine Aaron Mokoena to the scrapheap.
“It was not an easy decision to leave out Mbazo (Mokoena),” Mosimane said. “When I took over I made it clear I would make drastic and tough decisions, and (axing Mokoena) was one of them. I created competition in the team. I realised during the World Cup that local-based players carried us, so when I called up Mokoena and Kagisho Dikgacoi for the friendly against Kenya and didn’t play either of them, I knew what I was doing. We don’t have a situation where overseas-based players think they can just walk into the team. Katlego Mphela starts ahead of Davide Somma, and there’s no problem there.”
Perhaps valid criticism of Mosimane’s regime is that he’s failed to completely emerge out of Parreira’s shadow a year on. His selection, especially for the first XI, is as predictable as the chill that will remain with Johannesburg this winter, with the national coach only making changes when forced by injury – as seen last week when Andile Jali and Reneilwe Letsholonyane started only because Steven Pienaar and Thanduyise Khuboni were out injured.
“I know when it is the right time to make changes and bring in youngsters. Everybody has criticised me for including youngsters like Tlou (Segolela) Andile, and Thulani (Serero) in the team and not playing them. But I know when I will play them.”
For a man whose record has been nothing short of impeccable, perhaps Mosimane should finally be allowed to do what he was employed for: take Bafana to even greater heights.
PITSO’S RESULTS
August 11 v Ghana (home, friendly) 1-0; September 4 v Niger (H, Nations Cup qualifier) 2-0; October 10 v Sierra Leone (away, qualifier) 0-0; November 17 v US (H, friendly) 0-1; February 9 v Kenya (H, friendly) 2-0; March 26 v Egypt (H, qualifier) 1-0; April 14 v Tanzania (A, friendly) 1-0; June 5 v Egypt (A, qualifier) 0-0; P8 W5 D2 L1 F7 A1