For 88 minutes, 88 furious, glorious, stand up and be counted minutes, it looked like we might just somehow manage it. Inspired in part by the American dream a night earlier, in part by a wall of sound and support that extended well beyond the ramparts of Ellis Park, but most of all by the hope sport creates in all of us, we had a chance of humbling football’s greatest. And then, in a cruel, disdainful flash, it was over, our own South African dream wrenched from our collective grasp at the death. Such is sport.

But alongside the pain of coming so close, lies an enormous sense of pride in a team that has rarely inspired such sentiment. This was, quite simply, an outstanding performance from Bafana Bafana, and one that suggests 2010 may hold a flicker of a chance after all. Quick touches, surging runs, unrelenting defence, and a bold refusal to allow Brazil any of the space used so forcefully against Italy — this was a regal South Africa we simply haven’t seen under Joel Santana. Until now.

Perhaps it was the calibre of the opposition or the sense of occasion that brought the very best out of a team that, lest we forget, failed to qualify for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations. But factors as those might have been, the sense that this is a settled, composed team, aware of individual roles and how those need to combine, shone through in Johannesburg. Steven Pienaar, in danger of becoming Bafana’s Steven Gerrard, is a one-man team no more; instead, his creative genius sits at the hub of a team that looked assured and collected, and unruffled by the prospect of playing Brazil.

And for that reason, Santana deserves thunderous applause. He doesn’t have the charm of a Wenger, the charisma of a Mourinho, the authority of a Ferguson, and his media interactions have been those of a man unconcerned with image or perception. (He also speaks English remarkably well when he’s just won a game, translators suddenly no longer required.) But behind the lugubrious Walter Matthau visage lurks a shrewd football brain, and the team he has crafted suddenly has the makings, for the first time since 1996, of something beyond the ordinary.

It’s only one game, and Saturday’s clash with a humiliated Spain will be another important gauge — the third place play-off is rarely of any consequence, but this is a clear exception to that rule. South Africa simply has to follow the Brazil performance with another 90 minutes of powerful, composed football, and show that the semifinal defeat wasn’t a one-off. The platform is now clearly in place; now Santana’s team needs to build on the evident promise.

There are still areas of concern, certainly. Teko Modise still hasn’t quite produced the performances for Bafana that his Pirates form shows he’s capable of. Itumeleng Khune’s shot stopping is outstanding, but goalkeeper is still a contentious position for South Africa. And then there’s the key area for a team that deserved to hold off Brazil on Thursday night: scoring goals. Despite his double strike against New Zealand, the feeling persists that Bernard Parker is best suited playing off another striker, at which point the ghost of Benni McCarthy becomes a poltergeist Santana simply has to give reconsideration to.

Should McCarthy return, and Nasief Morris come back into the equation, then South Africa has a team to justifiably invest faith in; as it stands, we have a football side that should at least allow the World Cup to feature a home side playing genuinely competitive football. Thanks to Daniel Alves and his right foot, there’s no longer the chance of an outrageous fairytale finish to the Confederations Cup on Sunday; but another strong showing against the Spanish, and South African football fans, a long-suffering lot, will be allowed a long overdue smile.

  • Contact Dan at dan@metropolis.co.za


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