South African football gets schooled in Ghana

I spotted these figurines of Didier Drogba, John ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu and Patrick Mboma at football-fiend (and passionate Italy fan) Peter Alegi’s shrine to the game. (Okay, I’m exaggerating: there’s no shrine).

Peter politely agreed to take the picture.

Of the three, only Drogba is still playing and is one of the stars for Cote d’Ivoire in the latest version of the African Cup of Nations tournament in Ghana, while Moshoeu (South Africa) and Mboma (Cameroon) have both retired from international football. What intrigued me was the relative sizes of the three figures.

To some extent it reflects the diminishing status of South African football — on the field — on the African continent and my frustration as a fan of the Bafana Bafana (roughly translated as the ‘Boys;’ a name that does not inspire confidence in, among others, official quarters).

For the fan of South Africa’s team, the sense is that with each passing version of the Cup of Nations you have to lower your expectations: South Africa started playing international football in 1992 and in 1996, won the African Cup of Nations on home soil; two years later, Bafana made it to the final, but lost to Egypt. That was followed by third place (2000), the quarterfinals (2002), and twice finishing last in group play (2004, 2006). Now it seems natural that the team goes out in the first round (which they did yesterday in a tepid draw with equally disappointing Senegal). There is a long story here about what’s at the heart of the crisis, but I’ll save that for another time. It is telling, however, that the South African coach, Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira (salary: US$5 million annually) was already taking defeat well before the tournament started (see here).

Nevertheless, hope springs eternal for 2010, especially with the gradual emergence of players like Elrio van Heerden (one of the only bright sparks in this tournament; he scored twice, including this goal), Terror Fanteni and Kermit Erasmus, alongside experienced players, by then, like Steven Pienaar (now at Everton).

Now to the quarterfinals. I’ll leave it to Peter Alegi to offer his insights of the first round. Here. Peter, by the way, is betting his money on a replay of the 2006 final between Cote d’Ivoire and Egypt.

On a separate note:

For updates on the tournament, my favorite online sources have been: Mark Gleeson’s Reuters Soccer Blog (incidentally Gleeson is the subject of a hilarious profile at the Guardian‘s Sports Blog, Kick Off Nigeria (part of the South African Kick Off magazine brand) and GOAL (a soccer blog at the New York Times where the writers have a tendency to take themselves too seriously at times, but overall the blog is not bad). The most informative sites, however, are the BBC’s African Nations Cup (including daily audio round-ups) and the Guardian’s African Nations Cup page (it would help, though, if its chief correspondent in Ghana, Brian Oliver, tone down the Nottingham Forrest references).