Author: Ashley Munson
It might seem like a boring couple of months for sports enthusiasts in the northern hemisphere, with NFL coming back only in September and soccer – football in Europe – ending last Saturday with the Champions League final – won by Liverpool. However, if you are a South African, you don’t need to worry because there are plenty of reasons to be excited for the following months.
The African Cup of Nations, which will be in a 24 team format for the first time ever – up eight on the old format – sees the Bafana Bafana travel to Egypt in a bid to inject some pride back into the national side following a below adequate run in the competition over the past decade. Stuart Baxter, who is in his second spell in charge, will be looking to spring a surprise by dragging his team out of the ‘group of death’, which sees South Africa take on the Ivory Coast, Namibia and Morocco.
Matches against Ivory Coast and Morocco will prove challenging affairs but Namibia – who they face second – is more than a winnable match and that would leave it all to play for in the final group fixture.
Progress from the group would see the fans celebrate wildly, although failure to qualify could see calls for Baxter to go; proof of the fine lines in football these days. Baxter will be aiming for more than to be sent packing after a ‘good effort’ though and rightly so.
Despite a poor record in recent times, South Africa have lifted the trophy before – in 1996 – and it will take an effort towards that to have any chance of emerging from the shadow of that era.
Once the knockout stages arrive a tournament can open out and anything can happen and if you’re in any doubt as to whether or not South Africa can hold their own then just re-watch the qualifying matches with Nigeria – one of the higher ranked teams – in which they only took a solitary point from Baxter’s men in two games. On their day, South Africa are more than capable of getting results.
Plus, the South Africans can have some hopes for the future, after their brief participation in the under 20 World Cup, where they lost to Argentina and South Korea, but held Portugal to a draw – the current under 19 European champions – eliminating them from the cup.
If the thought of an African Nations campaign is exciting in itself, but it’s not the only football tournament catching attention because the Women’s World Cup is rapidly approaching. South Africa have qualified for the first time ever and so you should keep an eye on this one.
The women’s game is beginning to attract a lot more attention around the globe and the competition will likely be watched by record numbers so it’s an incredible stage for the nation to debut. Even without kicking a ball in France, the host country, there is a nice story to tell of manager Desiree Ellis’ journey. If you rewind near on 30 years, then Ellis was leading her team out as captain and now she has the honour of taking them to do battle on a new stage, but it won’t be straight forward.
If the men’s team find themselves in the ‘group of death’, then what lays in wait for Ellis’ women is much worse. Their campaign kicks off against Spain, before matches with China and one of the outright betting frontrunners Germany finalise the group phase.
The bookmakers are already dismissing the possibility of South Africa making it out of their group but Ellis, barring a complete humiliation, has enough credit in the bank to go again because qualifying in itself was the enormous achievement – one the nation have been trying to master for a quarter of a century.
That’s two incredible tournaments of football that lay ahead and, hopefully, at least one will see South Africa tackle a knockout stage but, even if not, all won’t be lost – we will go down swinging, we will go down with pride and, most importantly, we’ll have a great party whilst on the journey.
