WELL HELLO DOLLY: after years of waiting, South Africa finally gets a glimpse of Keagan's genius

DOLLIGHTFUL: Keagan Dolly after his 1st goal in Gambia

I said hello, Dolly, 

Well, hello, Dolly

 It's so nice to have you back

where you belong

You're lookin' swell, Dolly

I can tell, Dolly

You're still glowin'

You're still crowin'

You're still goin' strong

Those are the lyrics of one Louis Armstrong, in a hit single which swept around the world in 1964 after the launch of “Hello Dolly”, the musical of the same name.

I was three at the time but here we are, 52 years later and Keagan Dolly, aged 23, has finally become a hit with South Africa’s national football team.

Dolly, from the same Westbury suburb west of Johannesburg as Everton’s Steven Pienaar, should have been a Bafana Bafana veteran with 30+ caps by now.

But years of non-selection by the agent-manipulated national head coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba meant that his two assists and two fantastic strikes in Gambia on Saturday marked just his SECOND international appearance.

Dolly, who moved from Ajax Cape Town to Mamelodi Sundowns for R7m in 2014, was actually given a debut that year during 3-0 win over Sudan in Omdurman.

Since then, Mashaba has used various excuses to keep South Africa’s finest young player out of the senior squad, ranging from youth, lack of fitness, being on loan at his former club Ajax Cape Town, and - infamously - refusing to pick Keagz for the AFCON 2017 clashes against Cameroon this year “because he is involved in the U23 friendly in Brazil”.

While Rivaldo Coetzee, three years younger, was consistently selected despite obvious failings, Dolly was persistently ignored despite his progress in the PSL with Pitso's Masandawana.

That glaring omission came back to haunt Shaky on Saturday. Dolly, rampaging down the left, made two goals for low-scoring Orlando Pirates striker Thami Gabuza before thumping home two of his own from outside the box. Imagine, we asked, if Dolly had played in all the Group M qualifiers? Would that left foot have been the difference against Cameroon?

It was Dolly’s day. So much so that it’s hard to imagine him returning to PSL champions Mamelodi Sundowns after the Rio Olympics, he is surely bound for a European apprenticeship in September.

CHAMPION: Keagan Dolly in action for Sundowns

Amid the bizarre suggestions that this was some stroke of Mashaba genius or that we had suddenly found a superhero, the more enlightened Bafana fans recognised the record 4-0 away win in Bakau for what it was: too little, too late for our boys.

Dolly himself said: "There’s more to come, watch this space!

“This has been some year for me. I have won lots of things, selected for major awards and now being called for the national team and do this.

“It gives me a wonderful feeling but I want to continue working hard so that I repay the faith my coaches have placed on me.

“The coach told me to shoot when I am within range and I did exactly that in the second half and the rest as they say, is history.

“With the team leading 2-0 and cruising, I told myself ‘give it a go’ and boy I have never felt so good.

“My career is really blossoming but will continue to work hard, keep my feet grounded and put more effort in whatever I do.”

The sky appears to be the limit now for Dolly as Sundowns head in to the group stages of the African Champions League by default and Bafana prepare for COSAFA and the Olympics.

But soon the World Cup draw will outline the way ahead for South African football, where Dolly will become the central figure in Bafana’s plans.

It matters not who leads the nation in to those qualifiers, Dolly - and other youngsters ignored despite Danny Jordaan’s now-forgotten Vision 2022 plans - are the future for South Africa football. The nation will insist on a youthful future after Dolly’s heroics, no matter who leads the team.

Though a national coach who picks on form, youth and is capable of understanding modern football would be a major advantage in what promises to be a turbulent road to Russia in 2018.

RESPECT FOR HLOMPHO KEKANA... and another chance for Bafana to restore South Africa's pride

MARK GLEESON, a man who knows something about South African football, described it as “the best goal Bafana Bafana have ever scored.”

I took the 2m tall SuperSport commentator to his first professional football game as a journalist in 1985 in Durban - at Glebelands in Umlazi. We’ve seen a lot of goals, but Hlompho Kekana’s 65m effort against Cameroon deserved to win ANY game.

Sadly, it didn’t. Cameroon came back from Tokelo Rantie’s excellent early strike in Limbe and then, after the shock of Kekana’s wonder goal, they did it again to ensure the Lions remain Indomitable at home.

The strike...

Tonight at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, Shakes Mashaba’s men - the first side to take points off Cameroon in Group M - get another chance to save some pride in what has been a disastrous AFCON 2017 qualifying campaign.

Two points from three games - after a home draw against little Gambia and that awful defeat in Mauritania - means qualification for Gabon next year is highly unlikely.

But a win tonight might just open the door a crack, assuming both Cameroon (seven points) and Mauritania (six points) slip up badly on the run in. Only the Group M leaders qualify for AFCON 2017 - along with the best two runners-up out of 13.

Even if they win ALL of their last three qualifiers, Bafana can only reach 11 points. Like their cricketing cousins, South Africa’s footballers appear to have choked in what looked a reasonable qualifying group.

Kekana himself, picked by Gordon Igesund for the national team in the 0-0 draw against New Zealand two years ago, refuses to be downhearted as videos of his Beckhamesque goal flash around the globe.

He says: “We should not be where we are at the moment. We know how important the points are in this group and if we have to start collecting them.

...the goal...

“The Durban match a very crucial one. A win there will enhance our chances and we know we are very capable of doing that, we just need to apply ourselves a little better and try to minimise mistakes.”

Of THAT goal, Kekana grins:  “I always check how the keeper leaves his line when they are attacking. This started at Sundowns training four months back.

“After we dispossesed Cameroon I looked up and saw the keeper well off his line and I took a chance, thankfully it went in.

“I was very excited - I’ve been trying to score goals like that at Sundowns but I couldn’t. At training I would hit more than ten balls with none going in and it was frustrating.

“But when the goals come in a match of the calibre against Cameroon it always bring joy – and not only to me but to my teammates and the entire country which shows just how much the goals means to everyone, not just to me. So this goal is for them.

...the celebration

"Saturday in Limbe was a very tactical match; both teams had an attacking mind. It’s a game we thought we will win but it wasn’t to be.

"We gave away the lead too easily but then again a point away from home is also welcome, but we know we could have done better. But hey this is Cameroon we are talking about here; few teams can achieve what we have done.

"We really have to win on Tuesday night, we have no more options left as we are left with nine points to play for seeing that we only have two after three matches. Three points will take us closer to the leaders with two matches remaining and we have to fight. I believe in this team and still think that we stand a chance of going to Gabon."

With any luck Kekaha can produce another wonder goal tonight. And Tokelo Rantie showed on Saturday he can score in Africa despite being ejected from Bournemouth's Premier League squad.

Three points won’t solve Mashaba’s problems but it will certainly go some way towards restoring South Africa’s footballing pride.