They were quick; they were enthusiastic; they played brilliant attacking football and they left the field wonderfully victorious.
So good were they actually that Bafana Bafana received unqualified praise from the opposition coach.
“South Africa is on a very good dynamic for the (Africa) Nations Cup,” said Ivory Coast coach Herve Renard after his team’s defeat in yesterday’s Nelson Mandela Challenge here. “May be in a very long time we didn’t see South Africa players playing at this level.”
What impressed the 2012 Nations Cup winning coach – with Zambia – was the pace at which Bafana played the match.
“I saw them in the qualifiers (for the Nations Cup) and I knew what to expect. They play very attacking football and they press you. They were too fast, very fast for us.”
Renard said he had warned his highly inexperienced side of this: “Most of my team are young and I told them that this is not Under-20. I told them that there won’t be space and time on the ball.”
The Frenchman was spot on as Shakes Mashaba’s bunch of “unknowns” played with such a high intensity they hardly gave the visitors breathing space.
So much so that they actually scored within the first two minutes via Puleng Tlolane, the Polokwane City striker slotting home way after the flag had been raised for offside, albeit wrongly, as he had been onside when the ball was released to him.
Bafana could have opened the scoring on 11 minutes when Siyabonga Nhlapo’s persistent play set up David Zulu who fluffed the opportunity.
There was no such let off for the Elephants on the half-hour mark though when a slick passing movement involving no fewer than four Bafana players ended with Bongani Zungu slotting home from inside the box.
Ten minutes earlier, the referee had turned a blind eye to what had looked like a handball in the box as an Ivorian defender blocked Tlolane’s shot.
The whistleman from Botswana again appeared to be at fault when he only booked Jean Daniel Zirignon for a terrible tackle on Zungu that deserved a sending off.
Yet not even those errors could dispirit Bafana who limited the opposition to no shots at goal in the first half.
That they returned from the break and still played with the same high tempo was an indication of the desire to impress by the so-called second stringers, most of whom got to wear the senior side’s jersey only because the initial players called up were not released by their clubs.
And Bafana were worthy of the second goal that killed off this Mandela Challenge tie as a contest. When the Ivorians’ substitute goalkeeper Badra Sangare ran off his line to block Vuyisile Wana’s shot he only succeeded in putting the ball onto Zulu’s path.
The Chippa United striker took his shot very well, directing the ball via his boot laces through a few defenders into the open net.
They could have scored a third had substitute Lerato Lamola not been selfish and tried to score himself when sending the ball through to two unmarked teammates in the box looked the better option.
Mashaba was not complaining though, the coach lauding his players for a brilliant performance that ensured that Bafana continued on their positive run from the Nations Cup qualifiers.
His assistant Thabo Senong said at the post-match conference that a number of players had raised their hand for the Afcon finals squad.
“We can source maybe six or eight players from here who can give the international players some competition.” - The Star