After having
overcome Apartheid, South Africa became a comet at the African sky. Class
teams from all over the world agreed to play in the friendly conditions
of South Africa when they never would have made a trip to Accra or Abidjan,
but they also came for the symbolic meaning of the matches.
This helped South
Africa quickly to build the team that won the African Cup Of Nations 1996
on home turf. It had been an exceptional collection of players, who since
then have come into age.
The quickly changing
South African society and football culture have since rebuilt the
team. The dream to gather it around Benni McCarthy, the early labelled
'African Ronaldo' who sparkled at the African Nations Cup of 1998, failed.
After his career had become stuck between National team obligations and
practise struggle for a team place in European squads he had refused to
play for South Africa and after moving from club to club, seems to have
lost much of his form.
News spread easier
from South Africa to other continents than from Central-, West-, or East-African
countries. So severe adminsitrative problems at home have darkened the
once overbright sky of South African football: especially violence around
the game has caused anxiety.
But that South Africa
lost the race for the 2006 World Cup had different political reasons inside
FIFA and came also not at last thanks to Germans business relations with
Asia.
The national team
have been very solid in their performance, perfectly exploiting the given
opportunities in a way only Tunisia are matching them. But if it comes
to the question of how far they can go, it has to be considered that teams
like Cameroon or Nigeria do have more individual talent in their squads.
If those teams, who are performing more inconsistently than the South Africans,
can reach their highest level they still should be ahead like they were
at the last Nations Cup.
Still South Africa
are among the top favorites: Winning this group might ensure a relatively
easier quarter-final, compared to the other encounters.
And the names of the South
Africanplayers stand for a lot of quality indeed: Strikers Shaun Bartlett,
Siyabonga Nomvete, and Benni McCarthy might not all have been brilliantly
in their clubs, but have imposed a big threat in 1998 or 2000 tournaments.
And the midfield with
bright Kopenhagen talent Zuma and Manchester United substitute Quinton
Fortune, to name only two is almost as good as any other. Added to it a
defence that can act very solid, South Africa should not be counted out.
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