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Nice blog. It should provoke Bafana Bafana and Carlos Alberto Parreira to achieve the desired results and proceed to the next level. The fans would love it.

Not having played friendlies against top quality opposition has many drawbacks and some vital advantages. Opposing teams in the Group may not have video tapes to study the Bafana Bafana way of proceeding and that may be the surprise weapon in the armoury of coach Senhor Carlos Alberto.

The hosts are capable of imparting shock treatment to their famed rivals in the Group stage and move ahead. Best wishes to Bafana Bafana and their fans.


Dr. Cajetan Coelho

I have been quietly confident that Bafana Bafana will produce an upset in this tournament and hopefully beat the likes of Mexico and draw or suprise against Uruguay or France. I think the players we have are not world beaters per se but we are playing at home and a number of factors could be important.
firts i think the boys need to be confident and recent comments from Teko Modise, who has been captaining the side are not really needed at this point. see .

As one of the important players in the team and a leader as well, he should be more confident and I hope they can deal with the pressure. SA does have talented players though who can do well for the team and the need to play as a unit as well. I think the fans can play a huge role as long as they don't demoralise the players and are willing to back them no matter what mistakes they make. Fourth, I think Parreira will plan well for the matches, SA should not be scared of the individuals within other teams and Mexico's players have also not been playing regularly or been on form, although they have the experience of having played at a higher level, where as SA's players don't have enough experience in this respect. However the game is played over 90 minutes and Bafana Bafana have shown, against Brazil, Spain, that they can perform at a certain level and this is key as well.

I hope to celebrate a few keys victories here in Mzanzi during the course of the tournament as our boys rise to the occassion

I don't claim to know much about the league but it doesn't seem too bad quality. One of the top 15 leagues in the world in terms of television deals. And 16 teams in the league which is a good healthy number with a fair home and away game against each team. Much better than some countries formats (Scotlands, Belgiums)
Plus there are some decent players, a Pienaar-Mokoena centre mid pairing would be good enough for the lower end of the premier league. And the home advantage cannot be underestimated, I can see South Africa qualifying from the group in second place and getting knocked out in the last 16.

It always adds to the competition when the host nation do well. A place in the last 16 is a realistic target.

The host nation always falls in the rankings and they've not had to play qualifying games. (hence less games = less chance to move up in rankings)

It's a bit harsh to highlight Carlos Alberto Parreira not winning a World Cup game with Kuwait, the UAE or Saudi Arabia. It was quite an achievement to even qualify with Kuwait in 1982.

I think everyone will hope that South Africa do well, watching a nation galvanise around their team when hosting the World Cup is a great thing. I'm sure SA will be most fans second team.

- English Footballers Abroad

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I am so excited for the World Cup to start! It will be interesting to see how South Africa perform - the trend seems to be that the hosts usually do pretty well...

No one can under estimate home field advantage - look at South Korea and the U.S. (who were nothing special before they hosted the tournament) add-in the added significance of the World Cup being on African soil for the first time and miracles may happen. Invictus II? - probably not, but any result in their opening game and it could be lift-off for the bafana bafana.

Gus Hiddink worked a miracle with South Korea in 2002 and with the right impetus and instruction from Parreira and S.A. could suprise many. They are capable of beating Mexico and Uruguay, whilst no one knows if France might buckle under the embarrasment of how they got there. Friendlies mean absolutely nothing in International football nowadays, once the real thing starts spirits will soar trust me and it could be really special.

Worst Case: Bafana Bafana lose all their games! Now that is an unsavoury thought, but not one many people haven't thought about at some point.
Best case: They beat everyone and come out group winners. Now that would be something, infact that would be truly exceptional.
the most likely case: Something in between. We just hope for a great world cup, cos truth is, the moment The first ball is kicked, Africa would have already won a great victory.

south africa will get to the second round along with france from the group ,thats what i feel ..

South Africa are absolute rubbish as i saw them in the confed cup they were poor but not as abad as New Zealand who had to be the worst team i've ever seen play! I do not think they will win a game and to be honest I am not that bothered as everyone knows the south african crowd will support Brazil instead!!

'The host nation always falls in the rankings and they've not had to play qualifying games. (hence less games = less chance to move up in rankings)'

Well you could argue that they would not have reached the world cup without hosting it and their fifa ranking may have dropped further if they had played qualifying games and lost - afterall they did not even qualify for the 16 team African cup of nations.

iGlad(#) I'm not sure which Confed you watched because South Africa improved their game as the tournament went on, sure the first two matches were not the best but after that they raised their games against Spain twice and gave the eventual winners, Brazil, a tough time. I think before you rush out to say something stupid, actually try and back up your claims, otherwise your uninformed comments don't do you any favours and as for most fans supporting Brazil, clearly you don't know how fanatical Bafana Bafana supporters can be and how patriotic they are as well. It's going to be a great WC football wise. and the pitch is the only place that really counts, all the pre game what nots won't count

it will be interesting to see if the home nation pressure helps of hinders their campaign

SA produces lots of technically gifted players,unfortunately most of them don't develop further.Our isolation from the world led to us being only exposed to domestic football.We also could not watch any international sports due to the cultural boycott,so there was no top class football on tv.After readmission to FIFA in '92,we were quite naive and roped in a lot of shady European coaches to coach local clubs and Bafana Bafana.The football big-wigs got rid of local coach Clive Barker,who led the charge to AFCON '96,replacing him with a string of foreign coaches and South African stand-ins.

Unfortunately this all led to short-cuts and not real grassroots development,as the focus was on the national team and not developing future Bafana players.SA's Premier Soccer League is the richest in Africa,yet only two SA clubs have ever won continental honours in '95 and 2001.Our clubs just don't care about continental club competitions and field weakened teams just to crash out,deliberately.All kinds of excuses are bandied about,from fixture congestion,travelling difficulties,facilities,CAF's inflexibility...the list goes on.Strangely teams from neighbouring Southern African countries,with smaller budgets,manage better.Local clubs' academies don't produce quality in sufficient numbers,if at all.Our clubs would rather buy foreign players,who use the PSL as a stepping stone to Europe.Many of the move on,like Zimbabwe's Benjani,Ajax's Enoh,yet our players remain behind,stagnating in the PSL.Those few who move abroad eventually return to the PSL because they can't make it even in the smaller leagues.We are very proud of our EPL contingent because they have persevered,they are the exception to the rule.We are just not producing well rounded players,skillfull,yes,but development does not stop there.Many SA rookies in the PSL are in their mid-twenties.Teko Modise himself was 'discovered' at that age,ridiculous!We don't see many teenagers in our game,as they are deemed too young!Fans want trophies and as they say,you can't win trophies with kids.

I wish Bafana all the best in the Cup,these guys are really the best the country has been able to produce and i will be behind them all the way.They are capable of an upset.The shortcomings are not of Parreira's making but the skewed nature of development in SA football.Our clubs need to put capital into their academies and participate in CAF Club Championships in order to prepare players for all kinds of conditions.Being exposed only to our style of football has seen our players not being able to step it up when playing against world class opponents.

I'm South African, albeit British/South African and I keep an eye on the PSL and its a joke! except it's so bad it's not even funny. Everything that Parreira has said is accurate; These players have no structure and no discipline when they play and the only thing the strikers think of when their inside the oppositions half is to shoot, no thoughts of holding the ball, running the channels, off the ball movement to open space for others to run into (not that the midfielders would know how to exploit it anyway) and generally no composure what so ever.
I feel sorry for Steven Pienaar because in my opinion he's a world class player with a top class work ethic (something else thats clearly missing in South African footballers) but he's going to be undermined by his team mates.
I'm not sure if it's ever been recorded but i'm thinking of going to the bookies and placing a bet on south africa becoming the first World Cup host to fail to score a goal and lose all 3 games.

Great info in the blog and the subsequent discussions.

South Africa is not that much of a bad team with the likes of Pinnear & McCarthy who really has to pick himself up for the sake of his country.

Although we cannot make comparisions with South Korea's run in 2002 because, there the coach was Guus Hiddink who is a master plotter. Parreira is good but not to that level.

I somehow feel that Bafana Bafana will in someway make it to the next round and maybe get knocked out there.

It would be really nice to see Uruguay & Bafana Bafana or Mexico & Bafana Bafana qualify for the next round. I am not naming Les Bleus because of Ireland being victimised. If video evidence was used, then it would have been South Africa,Mexico,Ireland and Uruguay in Group A.

I just can't see it happening - South Africa are just not scoring enough goals, and the recent win over Jamaica doesn't mean anything, they're just to good enough to get out of their group. Shame really, the tourney could do with the hosts staying in. If it's any consolation, I expect it to be a fantastic tournament all the same...

# iGlad

South africa were pretty impressive in the Confed cup . I dont agree with you on that . And they are good enough to win a game if not progressing from the group .Their problem is they don't have prolific goalscorers but the home crowd can play a part in their performance as well and who knows that might inspire them . I fancy them to get past the group stage .