HE WAS a distinguished goalscorer in South African and Austrian Premier leagues during his playing career, and as a coach he holds the unique record of helping four different clubs win Premiership titles.

But in spite of all the accolades and plaudits from his past, Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund yesterday made the far-reaching pronouncement that "June is shaping to be the most important month of my soccer career".

The implications are apparent. Without a fair measure of success in qualifying games against the Central African Republic in neutral Cameroon's Yaounde on June 8 and Ethiopia in Addis Ababa eight days later, the prospect of South Africa competing in next year's World Cup in Brazil could be as dead as the dodo.

"The next couple of weeks not only loom as a massive challenge for me, but for the soccer-mad country as a whole," said the forthright Igesund. "Imagine being confronted with the prospect that the earliest Bafana could participate in a World Cup would be a distant 2018 in the middle of 2013 already."

For all this, Igesund characteristically remains optimistic about Bafana's chances of going forward to the second World Cup qualifying stages later in the year. "The main thing is that our fate remains in our own hands, and we are not reliant on the results of other countries," said the Bafana coach.

"If we beat CAR, Ethiopia and Botswana in our remaining opening group qualifying matches, it's a pretty certain bet we will be making the second qualifying round from which the remaining 10 teams will play for the five World Cup positions designated for Africa."

Igesund admits, however, that South Africa's current precarious position is the result of conceding four unnecessary points in the two opening World Cup qualifying draws against Ethiopia at home and Botswana away, which both took place before he was appointed Bafana coach.

"It's been like starting a 100m sprint 10m behind the rest of the runners. But we simply must make up the deficit," he added.

And the Bafana coach says that despite the almost eerie epidemic of injuries to defenders, which will keep Siyabonga Sangweni, Morgan Gould, Thabo Matlaba, Tsepo Masilela and Siboniso Gaxa, as well as key holding midfielder Kagisho Dikgacoi, out of the CAR and Ethiopia matches, there is a unified spirit among the remaining players that is essential to bring home the bacon.

But looking at the situation realistically, Igesund may be fully aware that he is in an ominous situation.