The Nelson Mandela Challenge match between Bafana Bafana and Egypt quickly lost the friendly tag following yet another disappointing result by the national team in Nelspruit last week. The 1-1 stalemate against lowly Mauritania in the final qualifier for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) now means the Egypt game has taken on on a must-win status.
What was actually a dead-rubber and pretty much a non-event, Bafana having long known their gruesome fate of not being able to participate in the Afcon to be held in Gabon, opened up a fresh debate on whether coach Shakes Mashaba should continue in his post as South Africa attempt to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Danny Jordaan, the SA Football Association (Safa) president and Mashaba’s boss, tightened the screws with a post-match TV interview that suggested the coach had a lot of questions to answer. The draw against Mauritania, who finished the game with 10-men, was simply unacceptable.
Mashaba would have gone into tonight's clash against Egypt at Orlando Stadium a bit more relaxed if his men had secured a convincing victory on Friday night, but this game will now invite his critics as well as backers to watch closely. The coach might have even had the luxury to appease his Mamelodi Sundowns counterpart Pitso Mosimane by releasing the five players the Brazilians coach argued deserved a break from international duty given the club’s congested schedule both in the domestic league and on the continent.
Without pre-empting Mashaba’s future, tonight’s match is one of extreme significance in his tenure as Bafana coach. He believes he is still the man to take the national team forward and all the way to the World Cup - and he might very well be. But his boss didn’t sound convinced last week. Jordaan will again be sitting in the Orlando Stadium suites, probably with his fellow Safa national executive committee members giving each other the side-eye throughout the 90 minutes. They want to see good football, a gutsy performance, and, most importantly, a coach who knows what he is doing.
The qualifiers for the World Cup begin early next month with a trip to Burkina Faso and it would seem foolish to sack Mashaba so close to the start of the journey to the global showpiece. However, that does not mean the coach is secure in his hot seat at the moment having blundered, in his own admission, in preparing for the Afcon qualifiers.
Mashaba needs to find that spark again, that one which saw him guide Bafana to the 2015 Afcon at a canter, unbeaten and dishing out performances that included bullying then reigning champions Nigeria by finishing top of the group. He was peeved last week that his detractors keep harping on about his failure to guide the national team to Gabon next year, forgetting that he was able to mastermind qualification for the previous edition of the continental tournament without his bosses asking him to do so. He dominated the headlines for all the wrong reasons at the weekend, but Egypt offers him an opportunity for redemption and - possibly - job security.
Follow Mazola Molefe on Twitter@superjourno
Independent Media