DURBAN – Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter has taken the responsibility for South Africa’s double defeat to Cape Verde which leaves their World Cup 2018 qualification hopes resting on the results of other teams.
Consecutive 2-1 losses home and away against the islanders saw South Africa sink from joint top spot to bottom of Group D, with two games left to play.
Even if South Africa win against Burkina Faso in Johannesburg next month and get the better of Senegal in Dakar in November, it won’t guarantee a spot at the World Cup in Russia next year.
Baxter lamented the outcome of Tuesday night’s result in Durban, which came four days after they were humbled in Praia, and described it as his lowest moment in the game.
“If I wasn’t devastated before, then I sure am now,” he said afterwards. “I have not had, anywhere that I have been, a more disappointing feeling than I have got now after a football game.
“I have seen a lot of teams beat South Africa, and a lot of those teams that beat South Africa were not as good as this. They played decently.”
Stuart Baxter speaks at the post-match press conference following the 2-1 defeat to Cape Verde. Source: SAFA
Then, too, the home outfit should have won both matches to wrest control of the group and ensure qualification remained in their destiny, Baxter admitted.
“Bringing them here to this beautiful stadium and to a crowd that got behind us at the beginning of the game, I think that should have been enough. We should have had the quality to do it, but we didn’t and that’s my fault. The players put in what they could.”