One day into the Confederations Cup, South Africa is exactly where it does not want to be.
“We have our back against the wall,” midfielder Steven Pienaar said after Bafana Bafana was held to a 0-0 draw by Iraq in the eight-team tournament’s opening match. “If you can get three points in the opening game, it normally takes a lot of pressure off a team.”
Now, the team needs a drastic turnaround for the game against New Zealand tomorrow, or it could be as good as out after four days of the two-week tournament.
PHOTO: AP
The Iraq game was considered an easy opener to boost South Africa’s momentum and put it well on the way to the semi-finals.
That, in turn, would give South Africa the credentials of a challenger at next year’s World Cup.
Instead, South Africa coach Joel Santana came under immediate criticism and fans had little to cheer for.
With South African President Jacob Zuma in the stands and fans incessantly blaring their vuvuzela horns, “it was a nervous game,” said Santana, complaining more about Iraq’s defensive tactics than the inefficiency of his forwards.
The jitters will not get any better over the coming days. With little glory and even fewer points expected against Spain in the last group game, South Africa will have to score a convincing win over the Oceania champions tomorrow.
If not, Santana could well be fired after the tournament.
The team was already coming off a bad run of games that left it eliminated from January’s African Cup of Nations, and Santana’s defensive tactics have long frustrated fans.
South Africa was unlucky even before the tournament started, when it was forced to leave Pienaar on the bench because the Everton player was still struggling following an ankle injury and stomach trouble.
Santana should be able to count on him tomorrow, when he will likely team up in midfield with Teko Modise, Sunday’s man of the match and the only bright light on the Bafana Bafana team.
“I feel OK now,” Pienaar said.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
RSS