The opening 20 minutes are still an Achilles heel for Bafana Bafana. But their ability to claw their way back into the game remains their biggest strength ahead of this weekend's Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.
Yesterday, South Africa broke the deadlock through defender Thulani Hlatshwayo in their friendly match against Mali after they had absorbed all the pressure up until the 41st minute.
Sibusiso Vilakazi and Dean Furman added two more goals late in the second half to make it look a bit easy against one of African football's giants.
The Eagles, who dumped Bafana out of the quarterfinals of the 2013 Afcon in South Africa, had bullied Shakes Mashaba's boys before the goal. While they had to deal with numerous attacks as well as adjust to the baking sun here, Bafana were never really too exposed to concede, and deservedly scored their first win over the west African giants.
Some battles - especially in the midfield - were won, and some were lost. However, Bafana went into the first half break in some measure of control, partly due to Hlatshwayo's well-headed goal that followed a Mandla Masango free kick.
It wasn't as easy as it seemed though. Bafana goalkeeper Jackson Mabokgwane, chosen ahead of Darren Keet and Brilliant Khuzwayo, could have been called into action much earlier in the game.
However, Ahmed Doumbia and Bakary Sako failed to hit the target. Mali captain Seydou Keita soon added his name to the mistimed attempts.
The west Africans had also become aware that they could expose Bafana on the left flank, where Thabo Matlaba was operating. Not that Matlaba had a shocker. But his enterprising runs forward were leaving a gaping hole, giving the Eagles the width to hit South Africa on the counter.
With the sun coming out and sweat dripping from the shirts, the pace and intensity of this clash surprisingly did not drop, proving that Bafana were acclimatising to the conditions in this neck of the woods and were not showing any respect to Mali. Mashaba will be proud of the team because he rang the changes and still got a decent performance out of them.
Historic win puts SA in tune for Afcon
The opening 20 minutes are still an Achilles heel for Bafana Bafana. But their ability to claw their way back into the game remains their biggest strength ahead of this weekend's Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.
Yesterday, South Africa broke the deadlock through defender Thulani Hlatshwayo in their friendly match against Mali after they had absorbed all the pressure up until the 41st minute.
Sibusiso Vilakazi and Dean Furman added two more goals late in the second half to make it look a bit easy against one of African football's giants.
The Eagles, who dumped Bafana out of the quarterfinals of the 2013 Afcon in South Africa, had bullied Shakes Mashaba's boys before the goal. While they had to deal with numerous attacks as well as adjust to the baking sun here, Bafana were never really too exposed to concede, and deservedly scored their first win over the west African giants.
Some battles - especially in the midfield - were won, and some were lost. However, Bafana went into the first half break in some measure of control, partly due to Hlatshwayo's well-headed goal that followed a Mandla Masango free kick.
It wasn't as easy as it seemed though. Bafana goalkeeper Jackson Mabokgwane, chosen ahead of Darren Keet and Brilliant Khuzwayo, could have been called into action much earlier in the game.
However, Ahmed Doumbia and Bakary Sako failed to hit the target. Mali captain Seydou Keita soon added his name to the mistimed attempts.
The west Africans had also become aware that they could expose Bafana on the left flank, where Thabo Matlaba was operating. Not that Matlaba had a shocker. But his enterprising runs forward were leaving a gaping hole, giving the Eagles the width to hit South Africa on the counter.
With the sun coming out and sweat dripping from the shirts, the pace and intensity of this clash surprisingly did not drop, proving that Bafana were acclimatising to the conditions in this neck of the woods and were not showing any respect to Mali. Mashaba will be proud of the team because he rang the changes and still got a decent performance out of them.
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