Bafana Bafana coach Joel Santana came to South Africa highly recommended by fellow Brazilian and former Bafana coach Carlos Parreira, but Santana's credentials as a coach will finally be put to the test when the Confederations Cup starts on Sunday, writes iafrica.com's Khaya Ndubane.

Santana has said that he is the man to lead Bafana Bafana to glory in both the Confederations Cup and the World Cup in 2010. That talk will finally come to end on Sunday when Bafana begin their quest for Confederations Cup glory with a match against Iraq.

A victory for South Africa will surely boost their confidence, but a loss to the lowly Iraq will have dire consequences for the hosts as they will find themselves in a situation where they have to beat Spain in order to qualify for the knockout stages. This might prove to be a difficult thing to do against the strong Spanish side that has star players like Xavi, Cesc Frabregas, David Villa and Fernando Torres.

The bottom line is that South Africa has to win on Sunday or they can forget about winning the Confederations Cup. But with South Africa's history against the weak opposition, one would be forgiven to think that Bafana will not achieve this feat.

Before, I am crucified for being unpatriotic, my view comes from hard evidence. Let’s just roll back to last year when Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for the 2010 African Cup of Nations. Bafana were once again in an easy group with Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria — with Nigeria like Spain being the stronger of the three teams.

Everyone thought South Africa would qualify for the African Cup of Nations, but it was not to be. The Santana-led side failed to beat Sierra Leone, who were ranked 101 in the FIFA rankings at the time, before they were thumped by Nigeria both home and away. In fact, Equatorial Guinea was the only side that Bafana managed to beat in that group.

Let's just hope, for everyone's sake, that history does not repeat itself. Let's all hope that Santana's 'magic wand' works and Bafana Bafana do well in the Confederations Cup.

But it if we do badly, let's not come down too hard on the poor Brazilian, who came to South Africa with no international experience.

Let's all remember his words when South Africa failed to qualify for Afcon: "The bigger picture is the 2010 World Cup". Therefore it does not matter whether we fail to qualify for the Afcon or to do well in the Confederations Cup.

Remember, the bigger picture is the 2010 World Cup!

  • Do you agree with Santana? Can Bafana Bafana win the Confederations Cup? Let us know what YOU think!
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