It's not a disaster! But it was an injustice. South Africa 1, Mali 1 - and a draw against Nigeria on Sunday will do nicely

The deadly elbow: Bernard Parker

Imagine, if you will, the scene in downtown Bamako earlier tonight. Dad and sons sitting in front of the television, kicking the dog and shouting in French: “We wuz robbed! Merde!”

Come on, you know it’s true. South Africans must put themselves in Mali’s shoes tonight. Itumeleng Khune’s rash ninth-minute challenge on the impressive Abdoulaye Sissoko WAS a penalty. On SABC1, former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Deshi Bhaktawer admitted: “He was two weeks late, nowhere near the ball, penalty for me.”

Not 15 minutes later, at the other end, PENALTY GIVEN as Lindokuhle Mbatha, making his full debut, was hauled down JUST OUTSIDE THE BOX.  Souleymane Konate found himself booked and Bernard Parker crashed home the penalty, as he does. Bhaktawer was spot on again: “It was outside the box, and he didn’t make much contact. No penalty.”

And that, my footballing loving friends, was that for the first half. Though out-played and out-muscled, Bafana got to half-time 1-0 up.

Ibrahima Sidibe’s second half equaliser was inevitable, exposing South Africa's defensive frailties. Well taken though. And just.

So how do the Malians feel? And any neutrals? Remember, South Africa has done little to dispel the match-fixing cloud raised by FIFA after those dodgy pre-World Cup friendlies in 2010. Suspensions were handed out, then rescinded. The great Presidential Inquiry appears to have been forgotten. Nobody has been punished.

And Mozambicans may feel Parker’s penalty on Saturday, which put Bafana back in the game at 1-0 down, was unjust too - as was the spot kick in their 4-2 defeat against Nigeria last night.

Essentially, a 1-1 draw against higher-ranked Mali (exactly as I predicted) was a good result for the hosts. They can afford to finish with a draw against Nigeria and no matter what the vastly superior Malians do against pointless Mozambique, the hosts will go through to the quarter-finals. Probably in second place.

With Sissoko hitting the woodwork and Bloemfontein Celtic’s Thabo “Mr Price” Nthethe showing once more how far short of international class he really is next to young Buhle Mkhwanazi, Mali ended the game as it had begun: putting pressure on the home goal.

Itumeleng Khune, eager to move to the European big-time, appeared over-anxious. The highlight of his game, apart from a couple of rash rushes from his goal, came just before half-time when he tried a cheeky shot from all of 60 yards that dropped just over the Mali bar.

The midfield pairing of Hlompho Kekana and Matthew Pattison struggled. Kekana, scorer of a match-changing scorcher in the opening 3-1 triumph over Mozambique on Saturday, had one mighty shot which bent wide but failed in his task to replace the injured Reneilwe Letsholonyane as a box-to-box midfielder. Pattison was forced to become a poor man’s Dean Furman, breaking down attack after attack, unable to move over the halfway line or create anything vaguely constructive.

Up front, Bernard Parker found himself outpaced by the athletic Malians, with little or no support – especially when Gordon Igesund left him on his own up front, removing second striker Edward Manqele, who had been warming up before the 54^th minute Mali equaliser. Weird that. It looked like going with one up front was a “park the bus” concept ruined by Sidibe’s well-taken leveller. But Igesund carried on with the substitution anyway.

And then, with Mali pushing for the winner, we had to endure the arrival of Lerato Chabangu as a replacement. Another Igesund favourite. His first task was to completely miss a volley just outside the box. How do the rest of the 23-man squad feel, watching replacements of that calibre?

But for all the critique of Igesund’s methods, a point represents something of a triumph. Only defeat against Nigeria in Cape Town will put South Africa out of the quarter-finals and given the talent on show from Mali last night, that’s not a disaster.

But if I were Cameroon referee Mal Souley Mohamadou, I’d probably avoid holidays in neighbouring Mali for a few lifetimes.

 BOLLOCKZ! my own football show on www.ballz.co.za, restarts after the Christmas break tomorrow at 9am. Supersport United coach Cavin Johnson will be on, explaining his loan signing of Bafana strike Dino Ndlovu. See the Ballz channel on www.YouTube.com for our growing collection of interviews with the big names in South African football.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news… and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice and how we are doing in using @thumperpigeon's R5,000 to make money for the Ballz charity WINGZ OF CHANGE.

CHANUARY COULD BE CHANTASTIC: Kekana thunderbolt lights up a hungry footballing nation

CHANTASTIC: Kekana (centre) celebrates his cracker

CHANUARY. That’s what we call it when the footballing New Year starts with the much-maligned third edition of the Championnat d’Afrique des Nations.

In English? The African Nations Championship. But calling it the ANC would be a little confusing given the unveiling of the ruling party’s manifesto over the weekend.

Poorly marketed, widely disrespected, there appeared to be no CHANce this tournament would really inspire our Rainboo Nation – until THAT sublime moment from Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Hlomphe Kekana. CHANtastic!

With the opening game against Mozambique in Cape Town locked at 1-1 after a series of habitually missed chances for Gordon Igesund’s Bafana Bafana, Kekana’s Kracker left visiting goalkeeper Soarito cartwheeling through the sky as his 35-yard hammerblow hit the back of the net.

And suddenly CHAN was up and running. A 3-1 opening triumph. With Mali beating AFCON holders Nigeria 2-1 later on the night, the tournament – limited to home-based players – had suddenly blossomed. With R80,000 win bonuses, full international caps and FIFA ranking points on offer, that’s as it should be after the unseemly row over player availability.

For a nation exhausted by hosting (2009 Confederations Cup, 2010 Fifa World Cup, 2013 Africa Cup of Nations), Igesund and SAFA were under huge pressure to get off to a winning start in a tournament where only the winners emerge from the qualifying pools.

Either side of Kekana’s Kracker, Bernard Parker – ironically one of the players Kaizer Chiefs general manager Bobby Motaung wanted withdrawn from CHAN - scored his 20 and 21^st goals for the nation, the first a hotly disputed penalty, the second a neat left-foot finish. A troubled first half was forgotten, a rousing win had the Cape Town audience on its feet.

Igesund grins:  "History tells you a win in the first game gives you a 70 percent chance of qualifying. At AFCON and the World Cup, we drew our first game, it was difficult from there onwards, an opening draw puts a lot of pressure on the team.

"Winning today gives the players lots of confidence, the fans get behind us and fill the stadium up when we play, they start believing again.

"If you're creating chances like we did, you have to be happy. We had 20 chances and scored three. We always looked like we were going to get one after they Mozambique scored. I was very confident.

“Sometimes you watch a team play and they don't score a goal and they haven't even created any opportunities. Yes, we had a major problem with scoring goals but we haven't got that problem any more!"

Mali, now officially the SERIOUS rivals in Group A, loom on Wednesday at the merry Cape Town Stadium with Igesund insisting: “Look it wasn’t a classic performance. But we had control of the game and we scored two fantastic goals – especially Kekana’s.

"It was the kind of goal you dream about. When Kekana struck it, I thought: “He’s taken the wrong choice there, he’s a bit far out” but when you saw it fly, you could see it had goal written all over it.

"In the first-half I thought we played okay – we didn’t really penetrate and I thought we were unfortunate to concede the early goal (Itumeleng Khune admitted afterwards he slipped and fell short of the deflected shot).

"But in the second half I was very happy, we kept possession, didn't panic and kept plugging way and were rewarded with the three points which was crucial for us."

With Thato Mokeke, Buhle Mkhwanazi, Lindokuhle Mbatha and Asavela Mbekile all making their full Bafana debuts, Igesund argues: "That also excited me today. Sometimes debutants can get a little nervous out there, but I was pleased that we were able to bring them on. We believe in these younger players; slowly but surely you have to do it, like we're doing it right now... I was very pleased for them."

 BOLLOCKZ! my own football show on www.ballz.co.za, restarts after the Christmas break on Thursday from 9am. See the Ballz channel on www.YouTube.com for our growing collection of interviews with the big names in South African football.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news… and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice and how we are doing in using @thumperpigeon's R5,000 to make money for the Ballz charity WINGZ OF CHANGE.

KIRSTEN BOSH: Gordon Igesund to stay in charge of Bafana Bafana until 2018

Good Gord: Igesund and I before AFCON

GORDON IGESUND will sign a FIVE-YEAR contract with Bafana Bafana which will see the Silver Fox guide South Africa BEYOND the World Cup in Brazil next year to 2018.

Igesund will enter negotiations over a new contract on Monday, saying: “I want to see the job through. I’ve always said that.”

Though both big-spending Bidvest Wits and former club Moroka Swallows were lurking in the shadows hoping Igesund would leave the national job after AFCON, Igesund now seems sure to stay in place until the World Cup in Russia in five years’ time.

Despite failing to achieve his mandate of reaching the last four of the African Cup of Nations on home soil, the South African Football Association have come out in support of the man appointed in June last year.

Bafana went out to Mali, Africa’s third-best side, on penalties in the quarter-finals of AFCON 2013 on Saturday, having out-played their highly-ranked opponents for 120 minutes in a hard-fought 1-1 draw.

Last night on SportsTalk, the show I produce for Udo Carelse on Talk Radio 702, SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani said: “We would have loved to get to the final, but considering the fact we started with a relatively very, very young team and a coach who came in five months ago, we have been somewhere.

“Look, I think every federation would aspire to have a coach that goes along the cycle of the World Cup. That is that aim of every footballing nation, that ultimately you qualify for the World Cup. 

Gordon came in just five months back, surely to me it would make a lot of logical sense to have a long-term place for a coach.

“To me, at this point in time, Gordon is a man who has done us very proud as we talk. We set a target but when you don’t reach it, it’s not the end of the world. You still have to review the issues that come up.

“The time factor comes in… and putting together a team in such a short space of time. The next target is the World Cup. We shouldn’t be rushing to begin to feel all is gone.

“We have committees to deal with the issue of Gordon’s future. Now, during March, we will be preparing the team for the World Cup qualifiers. We need a long term plan that will sustain this organisation.

"You have to aim high. If this level of performance is maintained  there is no reason why Gordon should not be our coach until 2018.”

Igesund, gradually coming back down to earth after guiding his team through a run of four games against higher-ranked side without defeat, said: “What we have done is bring back Bafana playing with pride.

“You can’t walk in to the side anymore just because your name is Joe Soap. These players have shown their pride and passion.  The players who weren’t here will have to fight their way in to this team.

“We have come a long way in a short time, but there is a long way to go.”