NKARENG MATSHE | Bafana would probably have fared worse than Qatar

Bafana Bafana’s undesirable record of being the first World Cup hosts to exit the tournament at the first hurdle may have been matched by Qatar this week, when the Asian nation bowed out with three defeats, zero points and a single goal.

But watching the tournament for the past two weeks, you couldn’t help but wonder if Bafana would have fared any better than Qatar, had this event been here this time.

Despite taking place in mid-season, when national teams have hardly had friendlies, the standard of football in display in Qatar has been of high quality, with only a few teams living up to the minnows tag, and others rising unexpectedly.

It left me thinking: what if by some miracle, Bafana were there? Suppose we had eliminated Ghana in qualifying, would our lads have been able to hold on the same way the Black Stars did in beating South Korea 3-2 this week, to go into today’s final match against Uruguay in with a chance of qualifying for the next round?

There’s no question that in 2010, Bafana fared far better than Qatar did now, as we were eliminated only due to goal difference after finishing on four points behind Uruguay and Mexico.

But we have regressed so much that probably even poor Qatar – if we were to meet them in an international – would probably humiliate us despite their wretched record that surely will make them the worst placed side at this tournament. In the 2010 event, we were rated 20th out of the 32 participants. Now we can’t qualify for a 24-team Africa Cup of Nations.

That is why despite our unwanted record having new owners, we shouldn’t dare celebrate. This World Cup is further evidence of how far behind SA has fallen behind world football standards. Unfancied teams like Ecuador and Saudi Arabia have drawn plaudits for their application and general play.

But it is African teams that Bafana must compare themselves against. Our five representatives – Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Cameroon and Ghana – all entered the final pool games with something to play for.

A common trait among the quintet is the fact that almost all of their squad members ply their trade in Europe, whereas we expect Bafana to make do with mostly a PSL-based team. It simply won’t work.

It was encouraging to read this week Safa president Danny Jordaan acknowledging SA may have to go on a naturalisation drive to boost Bafana’s resources. This is long overdue, but can the process of identifying European players with SA roots bring us better talent than Ricardo Nunes and David Somma? Also, this process has to include players we already know, such as Kobamelo Kodisang and Lebo Phiri who are in Europe already. That Hugo Broos continues to ignore them while he picks underperforming local nobodies is scandalous.

The high standard at this World Cup tells us Bafana have no choice but to adapt, or remain dead. Qatar’s below-par performance on the field should not fool us into believing we could have done better. After all, they are ranked 50th in the world right now, while we were in the 80s when we hosted.

The gulf in class between us and world football has grown so much we are better off watching these events on TV rather than being there. We are so poor we probably wouldn’t even have had a shot at goal!