Last night at Leverkusen, South African National soccer team Bafana Bafana lost 2 -0 to an energised and young German team, courtesy of goals either side of the interval from Mario Gomez and Mesut Özil.
And Bafana Bafana? At times they were energetic(not too often) . Most of the time they looked flat-footed, playing much to far back, never never making much of an impact on the German defense.
Playing in the red away kit, the German team was always moving forward in the international friendly in the BayArena. Coach Joel Santana and his ‘eight-man defense’ certainly did well to contain the Germans for much of the match, but offered next to nothing going forward, except for Stephen Pienaar who stood out. A goal in either half was enough for Joachim Loew’s side, who might have won by more but for some excellent goalkeeping from Bafana’s Rowen Fernandez.
My problem with Bafana Bafana was that they looked like a team who believed that they could not win – they had no confidence. Their set pieces were weak and with most of the team playing defense, the strikers never really had much support to really set up and execute any action. What can superb striker like Pienaar do when coach Santana fields an incredible three defensive-minded midfielders?
Let us hope Santana plays a bit of a different game on Tuesday night against Ireland in Limerick.
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The problem right there, you can’t be defending all the way and expect to win