Bafana Bafana have climbed from position 66 to 58 in FIFA rankings, moving to number 8 in African rankings. These are good news for the team and the country as a whole, especially coach Pitso Mosimane. It is a welcome confidence booster.
The team has started very well under Jingles, winning their two matches at home against Ghana and Niger respectively. Now the challenge is for them to maintain the good form and keep on climbing up the FIFA rankings.
I don’t mean to be a party pooper here, but I strongly believe that the team still needs to improve. There are many challenges ahead that Bafana still need to overcome, maybe when the team reaches the top 30 in the world we can say that we have achieved something and we are going somewhere.
Instead of celebrating the rise in FIFA rankings, we need to focus on immediate challenges like qualifying for the 2012 AFCON as well as the 2014 world cup in Brazil.
At the moment we have a good team, there is healthy competition for starting positions, everything seems to be going okay except for some questionable selections, otherwise all is well. I am also happy that the coach realizes the need to integrate some youngsters in the team. Players like Andile Jali, Siyanda Xulu, Kermit Erasmus and a few others are the future of South African football and they will ensure that the team keeps on climbing up those rankings, the old guard, including players like Macbeth Sibaya and Matthew Booth will not carry our flag for long.
The pressing question is where do we go from here? How do bring back the glory days when Bafana were a force to be reckoned with in Africa and a rising nation in world football?
The answers are there for all to see. The current players must show more pride in representing the country and be prepared literally die with their boots on for team. Secondly the disappointing mess in the junior national teams must be sorted before
it"s too late.
Climbing the FIFA rankings is encouraging and we must be happy, but the real work begins now.
Source - Timeslive.co.za
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