A blur of mail sped through my inbox from irate Nigerians following Friday's column, mostly wilful misinterpretation sparked by a passion for football; still, nice to have mail from Nigerians not pretending to be an immediate relative of a recently deceased dictator, desperate to send millions of dollars into my bank account despite never having met me. And I've no doubt that Sea Point, Hillbrow, and other large Nigerian cities will be in good cheer this morning after yesterday's result.

Bafana Bafana fans won't be quite so enamoured, however, for despite some promising early touches, and some strong individual performances, Nigeria were by some distance the better team. And while there were enough moments for the optimist to glean a little faith from, Carlos Santana has work to do, particularly as the World Cup is but a couple of years away. Which means the coach will be under much scrutiny, particularly as his side plays again this weekend, needing, quite simply, an authoritative victory. So can Santana engineer it?

Coaching a national football team in the filthy lucre of modern professionalism is at best a peculiar, at worst a thoroughly impossible job. Clubs release players reluctantly, fearing injury while on national duty, and fatigue from travel. Players, under pressure from clubs, try and avoid appearing, developing timely injuries. As a coach you often have a few days at best to gel an assortment of individual talents (and egos) with little history of playing together as a unit, and you're at the mercy of football associations staffed with administrators and politicians well versed in the art of shifting blame to the coach, so as to protect their own positions.

The turnover of national coaches is thus hardly surprising, particularly in African football, but also in the rest of the world (look out for several lost jobs before the European Championship, starting this Saturday, draws to a close). All of which put Santana under pressure from the moment he walked off the 'plane at OR Tambo; there's another aspect, though, which adds to the Brazilian's challenge.

At the moment, Santana is still using an interpreter, which means impassioned half-time speeches or key instructions are delivered to the team through a third party. The great coaches of the modern era — Ferguson, Hiddink, Mourinho, Mancini — have attained success as much for their oratory as for their perfect substitutions or inspired transfer raids; it's a crucial aspect of management, and you can't help wonder to what extent that's diluted by the language barrier.

I've no doubt Santana will work on his English (rumours that he's hired Helgaard Muller and Geo Cronjé as language coaches remain unconfirmed), but it's just another challenge to one of the hottest jobs around right now in world football. A strong performance in 2010 is matter of serious national pride, and that performance is some way off on the evidence of yesterday in Abuja. The Brazilian is charged with effecting the necessary turnaround in fortunes for South Africa; the fact that Nigeria has an excellent side doesn't lessen Santana's task.

But if you want some concluding inspiration — South Africa inspiration, nogal — involving coaches making progress in foreign climes, look to the little island of Jersey, where cricket overtook money laundering as primary interest over the weekend. Jersey versus Afghanistan might not have had quite the pizzazz of yesterday's IPL finale, but the game did represent the Division Five final of the ICC World Cricket League, the two teams having seen off the likes of Mozambique, Norway and Japan to make it through.

A modest clash, perhaps, but an important step on the road to the 2011 World Cup; and while Afghanistan won the tournament — an almighty achievement for a country still smouldering with conflict — Jersey's runner-up was enough to get them into Division Four, and keep a most unlikely World Cup dream alive a little longer. And Jersey's coach? One Peter Kirsten. If he can take little Jersey marching into the heady heights of Division Four — and beyond — then perhaps Santana can respond to his coaching challenge with the success South Africa craves. Pressure mounting already? Welcome to African football, Mr. Santana.

  • Contact Dan at dan@metropolis.co.za


    Print this page
    Send this article to a friend
    RSS
       Digg
    de.li.cious
    facebook