WE MUST NEVER WAKE UP TO THIS: While the Sports Minister rages, Bafana boss Gordon Igesund is "at peace"

Baffling: raging Mbalula and peaceful Igesund

South Africa’s Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula summed up the mood of the nation yesterday, describing Bafana Bafana as “a generation of players we must forget” after the humiliating 3-1 defeat against Nigeria in Cape Town.

Last night’s abysmal 3-1 defeat against an under-strength Nigeria sees the hosts crash out of the CHAN tournament at the first hurdle with the passionate Mbalula also offering this: “Last night we saw a bunch of losers – unbearable useless individuals. We must never wake up to this."

South Africans are accustomed to failure on home soil after going out of the 2010 World Cup in the group stages and missing out on the AFCON semi-finals in a penalty shoot-out. But the CHAN failure – coming despite a series of bizarre penalty decisions in their favour during their opening two matches – takes failure to a whole new level in a tournament open only to home-based players.

Mbalula raged: “The mediocrity we saw yesterday was disgraceful. This tournament has proved we have a crisis of monumental proportions in our national sport.”

Head coach Gordon Igesund is under increasing pressure despite his recent 1-0 friendly win over world champions Spain.

Starting with just one player up front after promising to “go for a win” Igesund made a series of bizarre selections throughout CHAN and appears incapable of raising South Africa’s stock despite protracted negotiations over availability before the tournament.

Mbalula raged: “In Africa we have won nothing – we are the laughing stock. Even Madiba Magic would not have worked. This generation of players we must forget.

“It is back to the drawing board. SAFA must draw up a detailed plan. They must wake up and smell the coffee.”

Igesund, famous for “having a cup of coffee” with (among others) Everton’s Steven Pienaar when he quit international football, insists: "What went wrong? Nigeria are a better side than us. We've got no excuses. We've got to look at ourselves and say that we weren't good enough."

Highlighting his record of 28 games, 14 wins, 7 draws and 7 losses, Igesund said:  “I just have to continue from where I am. I have a contract until June. I'm at peace with where I am."

But SAFA president Danny Jordaan, hoping to present a winning team to new technical sponsors NIKE next month, admitted: “We are facing three challenges - a new technical sponsor, do we need a new name for the team, and we must review the preparation, philosophy and the technical side of things.”


See also: http://neal-collins.blogspot.com/2014/01/grim-gordon-drinking-at-last-chance.html

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When the World Cup means everything: Chile fly the flag for 521 killed by earthquake

When your country has been hit by an earthquake and then a tsunami, you’d think football – even the World Cup – tends to become a minor detail. You’d be wrong.

At 3.34am on February 27 this year, Chile fell apart. The Richter scale registered 8.8 and 93 percent of the country's population were left in the dark as power failed. First the ground shook for 90 seconds, then the waves came. The huge off-shore quake moved the earth’s axis 8cm and shortened the day by over 1.28 microseconds.

The city of Concepción moved 10 feet west. The capital Santiago was shifted 10 inches, and Argentine capital Buenos Aires, a thousand miles away, moved one and a half inches. Chile gained an extra square mile of territory after their strongest quake since 1960.

It left 521 dead, 200,000 homeless and 500,000 houses damaged. But it also left a flag. The flag in this picture. Ripped and muddied, this is the standard around which Chile will gather today as they prepare to face Spain to decide Group H at Loftus Versfeld tomorrow.

A chap called Bruno Sandoval rescued the flag (white for the Andean snow, blue for the sky, red for the blood of the independence fighters) from the ruins of Pelluhue, about 200 miles south west of the capital Santiago. At the time, Chile’s president Sebastian Pinera said his actions would “lift the spirit of a nation.”

And that La Roja flag is still doing its job, fluttering over the team’s plush base at the Ingwenyama resort near Nelspruit. Chile’s captain Claudio Bravo, their unbeaten goalkeeper in 1-0 wins over Honduras and Switzerland so far, says: “We brought the flag with us to remind the team of what happened. The whole nation is watching. We remember our disaster.”

The delightfully named defender Waldo Ponce said: “It’s extra motivation. I always go to the flag after we finish training. It shows the suffering of our people – but it also reminds us we can bring a little joy after what happened."

Back home, between gathering around televisions to watch their side in distant Africa, the rebuilding goes on. Pedro Poblete lives in Talca, right at the epicentre of the earthquake. He lost his off-licence/bottle store but argues: “The World Cup helps me forget I’m homeless. This flag shows we have suffered and bled. And continue to blee. The flag and the football soothes our pain.”

Fortunately for Chile, that soothing process is likely to go on for a while yet. As long as Switzerland don’t beat Honduras in Bloemfontein, they can even afford to lose against the world’s second-best side and they will still march on to the last 16.

In a tournament dominated by the Latin American teams, Spain’s opening loss to Switzerland means they are the side that has to do all the running at Loftus. Mind you, Chile have never beaten Spain. The last time they met, in 2008, the recently-crowned European champions crushed their former colony 3-0.

Spearheaded by Durban-born Mark Gonzalez, whose father Raul signed for Umlazi Bush Bucks in 1984 (I should know, I broke the story in the Durban Daily News!) Chile have got what it takes to be the surprise package at South Africa 2010, though they are ranked a mere 18 in the world.

Gonzalez scored the only goal against Switzerland and President Pinera, watching with earthquake victims in Concepción, issued his verdict: “Humberto Suazo is a great player, but today was not his day. I think that the best was Jorge Valdivia. He opened the field, he made beautiful passes and he gave the pass for Esteban Paredes to make the cross for Mark Gonzalez to score the goal."

That kind of political and emotional judgement, with the muddy flag flying in the background, might just spurs Suazo and Co on to greater things against Spain. The European champions had better be wary. They could be the last side knocked out in the group stages. This one could make England v Germany look pedestrian.

Neal Collins is in South Africa to complain about England's performance and promote his first novel A GAME APART. See www.nealcollins.co.uk .

To see Neal at the National Arts Festival on July 4, go tohttp://www.computicket.com/web/event/neal_collins_a_game_apart/148367625 .

Just put this on page 51 of today's Lite

LITESPORT would like to apologise to any readers of yesterday’s cricket story on page 35 headlined: “Swann warns SA this is NOT same old England side”.
This newspaper was taken in by two early wins on the tour of South Africa which encouraged us to accept Graeme Swann’s argument which ran along the lines of: “What we’ve been trying for the last five years hasn’t really worked and we’ve done something about it.”
Last night’s humiliating Twenty20 defeat against South Africa A in Bloemfontein suggests this England team ARE, in fact, just as bad as all the other touring teams we send around the world for a good hammering at the hands of our former colonies. For that we apologise unreservedly.
England, without captain Andrew Strauss who avoids the shortest form of the game, were skittled for 89 in an innings that featured three comical run-outs. The second-string South Africans got there with four wickets to spare.
With the first of two Twenty20 internationals looming at the much more intimidating Wanderers Bull Ring in Johannesburg, stand-in captain Paul Collingwood said: “I’m hoping this was just a blip. I never like losing, but I think sometimes it is going to be a little bit of a reality check as well.
“We’ve started so well, it’s a really great atmosphere and there’s a lot of hard work going into it. I guess it’s just our decision-making in this form of the game that tonight has let us down.”
England’s injury list is worrying too. Swann left the field with a slight thigh problem, joining James Anderson (knee), Graham Onions (back) and Stuart Broad (shoulder) in the casualty department.
To see the relevant stories, go to e-edition.thelondonlite.co.uk