adminCAPE TOWN. — South Africa’s Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula yesterday lambasted Bafana Bafana for their performance in the 2014 African Nations Championship. “What I saw was not a problem of coaching, it was a bunch of losers,” Mbalula told a packed media conference in Cape Town.
“Their performance was not even lacklustre, it was useless. We must go to the drawing board. That mediocrity that was displayed yesterday . . . we must never wake up to that again.”
The host side crashed out of the tournament following a heavy 3-1 defeat against Nigeria in their final Group A clash at Cape Town Stadium on Sunday evening, stumbling at the first hurdle and failing to make it out of the group stage.
“We indeed have a crisis of monumental proportions. We don’t have a crisis of talent, we have a crisis of putting everything together.”
Bafana managed a win, a draw and a loss in their three group A encounters, condemning the national team to a first round exit.
“I felt like just standing up and walking out,” Mbalula said.
“I saw people lining up after the game to greet them . . . I won’t greet them, I didn’t even call them.”
Mbalula also singled out goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs for special criticism. The Bidvest Wits goalie came in for the injured Itumeleng Khune and conceded a penalty after spilling a regulation gather, and Mbalula suggested at a press conference this morning that Josephs should be embarrassed.
“I mean two soft goals, you know, the second goal the keeper committed the penalty alone, single handed, hardly without an assist by anybody,” the minister said.
“I love Josephs,but I don’t know what was going on with him yesterday. I mean he committed a mistake alone; he reminded me of the Frenchman that we naturalised and made South African, basically scoring two own-goals.
“The boy (Josephs) who comes from Cape Town, he should’ve shined yesterday. He’s just from around the corner and I mean all his community and his mother was there. How is going to explain that? That is basically a total disgrace performances.” — Drum-Kickoff.com
Online Reporter