Shakes' attitude, poor planning cost us in Mauritania

Mauritania coach Corentin Martins described South Africa as "weak" after their famous win over their much-fancied opponents in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Nouakchott on Saturday.

"Is what it was that South Africa were weak or is it that Mauritania has made progress?" the French-born coach asked the Mauritanian media after the match the South Africans will want to forget.

"Frankly, it was little of both. The South Africans were determined to keep the ball but lack depth in their game plan. That is what we used to our advantage."

I agree with Martins that Les Mourabitounes have made much progress in their recent matches, as was evident when they made Cameroon sweat before the Indomitable Lions won the tie 1-0 at home in their opening Afcon qualifier in June.

But I differ with his assertion that Bafana are a weak side.

Shakes Mashaba has enough depth at his disposal but the problem is poor planning and the bad attitude of the Bafana coach.

What happened in Nouakchott on Saturday was a national scandal. That defeat was self-inflicted. The ignominy in Nouakchott was the result of the coach's penchant to underestimate opponents, especially those ranked below us. Mashaba knew how detrimental a defeat would be to our chances of qualifying for the Afcon finals in Gabon after we only managed a point against minnows Gambia in the first qualifier in Durban in June.

Now we are faced with the Herculean task of reviving our fast fading qualification chances as we still have to play group leaders Cameroon twice.

Mashaba has blamed the defeat on everything and everyone but himself. According to the good coach - heat, fatigue, injuries and the red card for defender Siyabonga Zulu - were the reasons for the humiliating defeat. But I insist that poor planning and bad attitude cost us that encounter.

You see, we underestimated our opponents and won the match long before we boarded that plane to Mauritania.

We did not even see the importance of obtaining DVDs of their recent matches to help us to come up with a strategic plan for the match.

If thorough preparations were made, as Mashaba claims, then how can one explain the fact that we only learnt on our arrival at the Olympic Stadium that we would be playing on astroturf.

Crikey!

Our football is in serious crisis and it needs to be rescued as a matter of urgency. We need people with cool heads to deal with this crisis. Surely, we don't need grumpy people like Mashaba, who fights with everyone who criticises him. This is not the time for that Mr Mashaba. Insulting journalists because you disagree with them will not solve the problems.

Let me remind uncle Shakes that Bafana are a national asset and they belong to everyone who lives in this republic. So we have the right to comment about our national team whether they fare badly or not.

I would never have imagined in my life that one day a coach of Mauritania, of all countries, would label Bafana a weak team. Our boys are now a laughing stock of African football as we continue to show the continent how not to play entertaining football under Mashaba in recent matches. Ours have been sleep-inducing performances. No wonder people are angry with Mashaba and calls for his head are gaining momentum. Did I hear somebody say the Agency for a New Agenda (ANA) should apply for an urgent court interdict to prevent Mashaba from ever coming close to Bafana?

ANA failed in its bid to stop the Springboks from going to the World Cup. But there are people out there who strongly believe that ANA would have a strong case against Mashaba irrespective of last night's win over Senegal.