Bafana Bafana must stop playing countries like Madagascar if they want to be a force to be reckoned with in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, writes iafrica.com's Khaya Ndubane.

When Bafana failed to qualify for next year's African Cup of Nations (Afcon), the South African Football Association (Safa) promised to provide strong opposition to prepare the team for the World Cup, so why then were Bafana pitted against 131st ranked Madagascar on Saturday?

With all due respect to Madagascar ? who have never qualified for the Afcon ? they are an average team which can be beaten by a PSL team and one wonders as what Safa were hoping to achieve by bringing the team to South Africa.

Safa's excuse was that they wanted to give locally based players a chance to impress coach Joel Santana, but how were they going to impress Santana by playing against a largely unimpressive team is anybody?s guess?

Let's say for instance a player did impress Santana on Saturday and then come the World Cup the same player freezes against a country like Germany or Brazil because he was never exposed to playing the bigger nations.

The fact is Bafana need strong opposition because whether Santana is using a Bafana ?A? or ?B? side, the players need to be exposed to playing against tough countries so that they can be ready for the World Cup. Playing against weak opposition like Madagascar is a waste of time.

Prior to the Madagascar game, Bafana had lost six consecutive matches against strong opposition like Serbia and Germany ? a clear sign that they are far from being ready for 2010 ? one would have thought that Safa will organise matches against one of Africa's superpowers to test the local lads. Instead they got Madagascar.

Bafana looked ordinary against an ordinary team on Saturday and it is difficult to understand how Santana managed to pick out a player from this match as no player stood out on the day.

Bafana will play Norway, Iceland, Japan, Chile and Jamaica in their remaining friendlies and if you look at these countries only Japan, and to some degree Chile, are strong teams, while the rest ? like Madagascar ? are ordinary.

So it's time for Safa to put the country's interest first, it's time for Bafana to play strong opposition or history will be made when South Africa becomes the first host country not to go past the first round of the World Cup.

  • Do you agree with Khaya? Are Bafana on the right track in as far as World Cup preparations are concerned? Let us know what YOU think!