Bafana on target of African Nations Cup

Written by Walter ka Nkosi - Monday, 06 September 2010 16:14

South Africa have brightened their prospects of qualifying for the 2012 continental soccer showpiece, the African Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea by outplaying minnows Niger in their Group G qualifier  at the Mbombela Stadium on Saturday night. Coach Pitso Mosimane’s boys won 2-0, courtesy of early and late first-half goals by strikers Katlego Mphela and Bernard Parker. Bafana Bafana now top the group standings after the other group match between seven-time title holders, Egypt "The Pharaohs" and the Stars of Sierra Leone ended in a one-all draw in Cairo on Sunday afternoon. Mosimane’s lads would want to redeem themselves during their away visit at Freetown against Sierra Leone on October 9 after becoming the first Soccer World Cup hosts to be eliminated in the group stages three months ago. To be frank, Bafana are going to regret wasting the clear-cut scoring  opportunities in front of goals, if it could miraculously happen that they tie for a better goal difference against any of their group opponents in the later stages of the qualifiers. The culprits were Parker (third minute), Mphela (35th, 68th and 72nd minutes), Simphiwe Tshabalala (57th and 65th), captain Aaron "Mbazo" Mokoena (71st), Steven Pienaar (74th), substitute Kermit Erasmus (78th and 93rd), another substitute Teko Modise (84th) and Bongani Khumalo (87th). Most of the wasted chances were through shooting off-target while in front of the goals while  others ranged from the heroic saves by Niger goalkeeper, Kassaly Daouda, too many touches in Niger’s goalmouth and several miskicks by Bafana players. The Menas (Nigerian squad’s nickname), too, have themselves to blame for failing to capitalise on some visible floppy defending by Bafana defenders Mokoena and Khumalo. Their star player Moussa Maazou, captain Idrissa Laouali and Daouda Kamilou failed to convert the numerous chances they created as they frequently shot wide at the side-netting, with only keeper Itumeleng Khune to beat. Khune, too, should be commended for his expert command of his area which scared off the Niger forwards from scoring from the opportunities they created. Mosimane later said his boys hadn’t come to the party as often in front of goal, as one could have expected. "It’s strange that Bernard Parker’s (second) goal was the most brilliant although it was a very difficult execution. In the training sessions we worked on finishing, finishing, finishing but we couldn’t finish the easy ones," he commented. The Niger coach could not be reached for comment.