The failure of Pitso and his troop to qualify for the 2012 Afcon would never been attributed to weak defence. Pitso had mastered the art of protecting South Africa goal post with a remarquable statistic. (please do some research).
Bafana managed to create a lot of scoring opportunities, starting with Pienaar who was collecting the ball from Dikacio, was quickly supported by Thulani Serero and May Mahlangu (all good ball player) hence it was easy to breach Senegal defence.
Pitso started with a 4-1-3 (with the capt deep not up) and 2 (Edward Manqele just behind Katlego Mphela)After making 6 changes, he went back to 4-4-2 using Lebohang Mokoena as an attacking wing, Thamsanqa Sangweni playing along Teko Modise who was in advance position.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad performance from the boys but we should look at this point (each time we had a 50-50 battle for the ball, we lost the plot, except at the back). We become accustomed to a strong Bafana Bafana defence performances where in more than 3 games, the man of the match were defenders.
In the game vs Senegal, we have seen the danger of changing our approach in order to please most.
Back 5, Khune, Masilela, Gould, Khumalo and Anele is the strongest back 5 you can currently have in South Africa, However, the 2 full backs ( Anele n Masilela) couldn’t go forward and create havoc at Senegal defence with crossings.
Why? Well, this takes me to my point, South Africa under Pitso and the 2 Brasilian brothers got to play with 2 defensive players in the middle. Their a role is of supporting the full backs when overlapping and keep the defence in sharp and balanced. This time around, Pitso used 1, Kagisho Dikacio. This created a danger when Bafana didn’t have the ball. We got penetrated more often than we would have loved ( yes, no shooting on target from weak Senegal attackers) but the fact that Itumeleng Khune had to come out 3 times in the first half to collect the ball or play as a swipper isn’t a good sign.
Way forward: keep believing and don’t shoot the coach or boo the boys.
THEY ARE TRYING
This is my view, I’m just sharing with my friends. I love you all.
By: Christopher L Bongo
(our guess blogger and a football analyst for SABC sport)
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