A good night out – unless you are South Sudan*

* or you needed more than 4½ hours sleep.

We went down to the DHL Stadium in Cape Town last night for the AFCON qualifier between South Africa and South Sudan. As I mentioned yesterday, this match didn’t matter too much, with SA already qualified, and SS already… not. And so it was a bit of a free hit, and an opportunity to celebrate both the qualification and the first Bafana Bafana game in Cape Town in 9 (nine) years.

And although the early kick off made it tough for a lot of people to get there on time, the stadium did fill up and there was a really joyous and jubilant atmosphere. A properly fun occasion.

Cape Town didn’t miss out on the chance to show off, as well.

It finished in a (more than) comfortable 3-0 win for the hosts in front of a passionate crowd; South Sudan almost being too bad to play well against. And – once the traffic had cleared – we made a quick trip to the Dark Horse for post-match drinks and bar snacks (OMG, the Prego Bruschetta!).

I’m not saying what time I got home (or in what sort of state), but you’ve seen the footnote beneath the title, and you know that I’ll be in bed by 8:30 tonight in an effort to make up for any lost time in Sleepsville, Western Cape last night.

Football this evening

Not playing, like we do most Tuesday evenings in Green Point.

No. Watching, like we are doing this Tuesday evening in Green Point.

When we bought tickets, South Africa v South Sudan could have been an all-important, must-win game for Bafana Bafana. But because of results in the intervening period (a win for each of them, as it happens), it doesn’t matter quite as much.

Still, a nice home win in front of a sold out (2 tiers) crowd would be very welcome. And it’s been too long since I’ve watched live footy. So we’re going to go down there and enjoy it.

And then eat some tentacles at the home of tentacles a little later.

Day 599, part 2 – Bafana Bafana out of World Cup thanks to this “penalty” “decision”

Full disclosure: I didn’t watch the match – way too late for me right now.
Just catching up now and… well… wow. This one needs sharing for posterity.
You’re Ghana love it.

Thoughts and prayers with the player involved. Unlikely to ever play again, looking at this.
Less sympathy for the referee’s bank account.

Ghana’s 1-0 win (the goal coming from this decision) means that the final table looks like this:

…meaning that South Africa don’t qualify, but Ghana do.

Convenient.

And you can talk all you like about missed chances and winning games you only drew and and and, but there were plenty of other close calls across the world yesterday (not least this amazing game – or this one), whose outcomes weren’t then ruined by a really, really, dodgy decision.

Africa stays laughable. And losing.

What a difference a year makes…

…52 little weeks.

On 20th January last year, South Africa woke up to read what our Sports Minister had said about the national football team’s defeat the previous evening:

“The mediocrity we saw yesterday is disgraceful. Last night, we saw a bunch of losers who conceded two useless goals. We must never wake up to this situation ever again,” said Mbalula.

But then guess what happened last night?
Oops.

On 20th January this year, South Africa woke up to the words of a somewhat different Fikile Mbalula:

But that’s politics for you isn’t it? A short-term, shiny surface popularity contest (see yesterday’s post) with no real substance behind it. I’d love to think that Mbalula felt differently about the South African football team, but deep down, I think he’s just trying to look good in front of his legion of twitter fans after the kicking his reputation took for those 2014 comments.

So, while I’m all for this “new approach”, while we’re a whole 365 days on from Fikile’s extraordinary outburst, while he tells us how we must react to last night’s rubbish with dignity and while we’re all not calling Bafana Bafana names, let’s not allow ourselves to conveniently forget exactly who was the most famous name caller of all.

Footy tonight and footy past

I’m off to watch South Africa take on African Champions and second-tier Ebola carriers Nigeria at the Cape Town Stadium this evening. It’ll be my fourth time watching the national team and I have yet to see them win.
Or… er… draw, actually.

The first Bafana Bafana game I saw was seven years ago yesterday, as it happens: Zambia in an Afcon qualifier at Newlands. South Africa weren’t very good that day and Chris Katongo scored a hattrick in 11 minutes for Chipolopolo ruining the return of Benni McCarthy from international exile. It finished 1-3. It wasn’t great.

And then, because of the World Cup and the politics of SAFA, we didn’t see another Bafana game in Cape Town until after the World Cup. Then, we got to see them play the USA at the Cape Town Stadium in the Nelson Mandela Challenge in November 2010. South Africa weren’t very good that day, and lost to a second half goal from Juan Agudelo.

We shouldn’t forget the last time I saw them, either. 8th January last year, against a decidedly under-strength (read: “B-team”) Norway. South Africa weren’t very good that day and eventually lost a really, really boring game to Tarik Elyounoussi’s goal just before half time.

South Africa have won one first-class game at the Cape Town Stadium: a 2-0 win against the Central African Republic in March last year. I wasn’t there, but I was reliably informed that the Central African Republic weren’t very good that day. And yes, there were the CHAN games too, but those don’t really count.

So Bafana’s record is fairly unspectacular in Cape Town, and even more so when I’m watching them. New coach Shakes Mashaba has requested everyone to come out and support the team this evening, but if he knew my history with watching his side, he’d probably be less keen to see me there.

The stadium in Sudan was fully packed to capacity. I hope it will also be the case in Cape Town.

Well, no it won’t. I’m not sure what sort of crowd they’re expecting, but I am told that the lower tier has sold out and they’ve opened up the second tier for bookings. That would probably mean somewhere between about 25,000 and 30,000 tops.

I’ll try and snap a few photos this evening and put them on twitter (tonight) and Flickr (maybe tomorrow).