When "What Can I Do?" simply isn't enough: the Pitso Mosimane story

The people have spoken: Pitso Mosimane

LIKE a character in a Nando’s advert, Pitso Mosimane could go up in smoke at any time, detonated amid a wave of drawophobia from a frustrated football-speaking nation.

The Bafana Bafana boss knew the writing was on the wall on Sunday night, after a yet another disappointing draw – this time a 1-1 stalemate against FIFA’s 138th-best country Ethiopia to open his first World Cup qualifying campaign.

Brazil 2014 seemed a long way off for all of us on Sunday night. For Mosimane, the 47-year-old from Kagiso, Rio de Janeiro may now be off the agenda after failing to win for nine games and pleading: “What can I do?”

Mosimane’s international coaching tensure could be barely more substantial than his 4-cap playing career for Bafana nearly ten years ago. Though I argued on eTV Sunrise and eNews yesterday that he should stay in charge for the second game against Botswana on Saturday, SAFA called an emergency meeting at their NASREC headquarters at 9am to discuss the future of the former Cosmos and Sundowns journeyman.
Eight hours later, Gordon Igesund had emerged as the favored candidate with Pitso back in Phokeng with the squad amid whispers of government intervention from Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and Irvin Khoza on the warpath. Igesund is out of contract with Moroka Swallows at the end of the month and according to kick-off.com "negotiations are taking place" with SAFA.
As I write, that SAFA meeting is ongoing – perhaps his articulate assistant Steve Komphela is adding his input. By 11am, after 13 hours of dithering, SAFA had still failed to release anything official with a spokesman saying "there are procedures to be followed."

Komphela, the Free State Stars miracle-worker appointed by SAFA three months ago, may take over in Gaberone if Pitso goes up in smoke. The people’s choice, Igesund, remains in China on tour with his rebuilt Moroka Swallows but may still have time to take charge before Sunday. Gavin Hunt and Shakes Mashaba have also been mentioned. At least, as the social networks said yesterday, Komphela talks a good game.

And really, that was always Pitso’s problem. As No2 during the World Cup in 2010, he was friendly enough. But by the time he took over from Carlos Alberto Ferreira, the whispers had begun.

The non-qualifying celebrations after that infamous draw against Sierra Leone should have been the end of course. I remember asking a former team-mate and television analyst why nobody had told Pitso he needed a win rather than a draw to reach AFCON2012. He said: “I never speak to Pitso. Since he became Bafana boss he’s deleted my number from his phone and he never returns my calls.”

Since then of course, Bafana have failed to win again and again. Few were distracted by the non-payment of the sangoma who claimed to be responsible. And though South Africa produced a near-heroic final half-hour at the Royal Bafokeng Palace on Sunday, the winner just wouldn’t come after the alleged killer Katlego Mphela’s 77th-minute equaliser.

It was, to put it mildly, a Phokeng disappointment.

And Mosimane’s post-match efforts to justify his shortcomings were hardly glittering.

He said: “It is not for me to say whether I must stay or go. I don't even have to respond to what people say. The pressure is there and it will always be there. But we still have 15 points to play for, okay?

"Botswana won’t be easy but the team is fighting. It’s not as if we are losing. No, no, there is a little bit of integrity. We believe we can take three points in Botswana on Sunday.

"What can I do? The usual story happened, chances were created but we didn't take them. How do I sort out the problems of South African football? Siyabonga Nomvete has scored the most goals this season and I had him in the team.

“He scored 20 for Moroka Swallows. And we created chances, Hey! Let's have fair play. You see, in South Africa we don't want to accept reality.

“Things have not been going well for us since we won the 1996 Cup of Nations – but we still don’t change the formula. The world is catching up with us. We don't want to accept that we are not scoring goals. We don't want to accept that our development programmes are not good.

"It took Spain 80 years to win the World Cup, but they had to change. We don't change the formula yet we expect different results. Let’s be shrewd. Whether I'm here or not they will miss the chances.”

So we don’t know who will be Bafana boss in Botswana on Sunday (live at 3pm on SABC1). But here’s my suggested eleven to face the guns of Gaberone – with Nomvethe reduced to an impact substitute and Reneilwe Letsholonyane rested after a season marred by injury: Sandilands, Gaxa, Masenamela, Mathoho, Gould, Jali, Mahlangu, Pienaar, Modise, Mphela, Rodgers (or Serero if he's over bereavement).

Nomvethe or Sangweni: let's have Siyabongas all round for South Africa's Footballer of the Season, thank you

Siyabonga very much: Nomvethe receives
his award from Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula

THE row over the PSL Footballer of the Season award handed to Moroka Swallows veteran Siyabonga Nomvethe on Sunday night refuses to go away.

Orlando Pirates fans are adamant their own Siyabonga - Sangweni - deserved the ultimate accolade on a night when the 34-year-old "Bhele" won FOUR awards, picking up cheques worth R600,000 in slightly less than an hour. While prospective gamblers at the surrounding Gold Reef City were desperately prospecting for a few rands around them, South Africa's footballing fraternity were left open-mouthed as Nomvethe - fresh from scoring a hat-trick on his return to Bafana Bafana in a friendly against club side Impala Warriors earlier in the day - was forced to use his aching legs to get to the stage time and again.

Three of those awards were won without serious debate.

The R50,000 PSL golden boot, named after the late Buccaneer Lesley Manyathela, was a matter of mathematics. Nomvethe reached 20 League goals this season and ended eight clear of his rivals, including the 34-year-old Benni McCarthy.

He also scooped the R150,000 PSL Player of the Season accolade ahead of team-mate David Mathebula and Sangweni.

And a quick count of votes among his peers saw Nomvethe take the Player's Player of the Season cheque for R150,000.

But it was the R250,000 Footballer of the Season - awarded by Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula to the best player in all competitions, not just the PSL - that got the Ghost's goat.

While Nomvethe shone in the League and failed with coach of the season Gordon Igesund's Swallows in the cups, Sangweni played 28 League games for the Buccaneers, scoring vital goals against Bloemfontein Celtic and Golden Arrows in the title-clinching final two games.

He also played in EVERY knock-out match, where Pirates won the MTN8 trophy and the Telkom Knock-out, where Sangweni was voted defender of the tournament.

Just like last year, when Ajax Cape Town's Thulani Serero won the award - voted for by the 16 PSL coaches - ahead of Andile Jali, Augusto Palacios was making Ruud Krol-style waves.

Pirates' Peruvian caretaker coach - still not sure of his future next season - told kickoff.com: "I think our man deserved it on merit. Of course Sangweni is disappointed.

"I respect what Nomvethe did, but I feel Sangweni deserved this one. Sangweni was also a part of the national team throughout the season, so for me personally this was his award. 

"I don't dispute what Nomvete did, but Sangweni did well in ALL competitions."

And of course he's right. With seven goals in all competitions, the 30-year-old from Empangeni, whose younger brother Thamsanqa has just left Amazulu for Sundowns, did do the business.

But here's the problem. There were so many other prominent Pirates who did well in all competitions during another historic treble-winning season for the Sea Robbers.

Benni McCarthy, who won the ABSA-lutely stunning goal of the season for his overhead kick, also picked up the Telkom Knock-out goal and player of the tournament awards. And he produced the two late goals which won the title in Durban just over a week ago.

And then there's the captain, Lucky Lekgwathi who, at 35, scored what was eventually the most important goal of the season, the last-gasp effort which overcame stubborn SuperSports United a month ago.

The 35-year-old from GaRankuwa would have been my choice as South Africa's best player this season - but he wasn't nominated for ANY award on Sunday night.

Perhaps Sangweni's failure shows just how much talent the Pirates had on show rather than how much other Premier coaches dislike the black-and-white.

Sangweni himself, of course, showed no sign of discomfort. He told Soccer Laduma: “Nomvethe deserved the big award. Honestly, Bhele worked hard this past season - I’m happy for him, which is why I congratulated him and would like to congratulate him once again.

“I can’t blame anyone because those who selected him believed he was more deserving. We see things differently, as some people think I should’ve won the award but that’s how football is. I have no hard feelings about it because being nominated in almost every award means I did well and I’m happy about it.”

So Siyabongas all round it is. And for my money, Nomvethe's goal glut was THE story of the season. He scored more goals in percentage terms than Robin van Persie scored for "one man team" Arsenal, and the man from KwaMashu almost single-handedly propelled the Dube Birds from relegation fodder to championship contenders.

For that, Bhele deserved everything he got on Sunday night, which was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion.

But one last question: Where was the voice of the PSL, Robert Marawa of MetroFm, SABCtv and SuperSport? I know, but I'm afraid I can't tell you.

You can follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol or watch my regular Monday morning appearances on eNews and eTV Sunrise. And read www.thenewage.co.za every Tuesday for my "Neal and Pray" column.

South Africa's World Cup preparations under a volcanic cloud in Germany

SOUTH AFRICA’S preparations for the World Cup may be going smoothly at home – but in Germany, where their team are currently lingering beneath the volcanic dust cloud, chaos reigns.

Carlos Alberto Parreira, Brazilian boss of Bafana Bafana, always had his work cut out. In charge of the world’s 88th best side (that’s two better than Iceland, but they can blame volcanos), they are by some distance the lowest ranked host nation in the history of the tournament.

But then their weekend match against Second Division Greuther Furth was called off. Monday’s clash with Third Division SpVgg Unterhaching soon followed. And nobody would comment. A stony silence as worried media tried to find out what was going on, whether this week’s matches against Eintracht Frankfurt and Nuremburg would go on.

Today SAFA chairman Leslie Sedibe, always something of a compromise appointment when he was surprisingly elected ahead of Danny Jordaan last October, said: "We are working very hard in an effort to address these problems and those responsible will be called on to give accountability.

“We are attempting to resolve the practice match issue from here and with the people in Germany. Our coach is using his contacts in Europe to get us matches.”

Hmm. You would have thought from the day Sedibe got the job six months ago he would have been considering his nation’s warm-up opponents. He’d have had June 11 ringed in red on the calendar by predecessor Raymond Hack, surely? After all, they won the bid to host the World Cup in May 2004.

But this is the team which was planning to use Esselen Park Centre of Excellence near Johannesburg as their World Cup base. Then they discovered in January it needed R16m (that’s about £1,6m) worth of work done. A brief inspection revealed the Kempton Park site was “run down and shabby”. So the hosts became the last team to officially confirm their base in February – they were planning to use Sandown High School while the other 31 nations headed for their purpose built training camps.

Now South Africa will prepare alongside Holland at Wits University – but only after a last-minute plea which saved the job of Sipho Nkumjane, the BafBaf team manager who is coming under pressure again today following the fixtures debacle in Germany.

Bafana's camp in Germany – coming hard on the heels of a similar trip to Brazil - will cost SAFA about £4m (R30m). And their vital trio of Premier League players – Everton’s Steven Pienaar, West Ham’s Benni McCarthy and Portsmouth’s FA Cup final-bound Aaron Makoena – aren’t even allowed to be there.

Sedibe, who was supposed to fly home on Sunday night like so many others, added: “Now the situation has been further aggravated with clubs in Europe having to reschedule their travel plans, using road transport instead of air travel, to get from one match to another.”

Their planned fixture with fellow finalists North Korea fell apart because the Koreans wanted to play the game in Spain, not Germany.

And the fiercely Communist nation - ranked 105 by FIFA, the lowest of the 32 nations - were also demanding an appearance fee.

Instead, South Africa hope to play European minnows Estonia (ranked No100 in the world) on Saturday and China (84th) in Furth on April 29. But don’t hold your breath.

They return home to play Columbia (39th) – their first game with their Premier League trio – at Soccer City on May 27.

And their last warm-up before their World Cup opening Group A game against Mexico (17th) will be against Denmark (34th) at Africa’s biggest stadium on June 5.

Some good news though. Siyabonga Nomvethe, the Moroka Swallows striker recalled to the 23-man squad for the trip, says: “The atmosphere is great here but the training is tough. We are enjoying every moment of it and so far so good in terms of our preparations for the World Cup.”