Another false dawn for Bafana Bafana.
And what an embarrassing way to do it too.
After smashing the lowly Seychelles with a record 6-0 scoreline last Saturday, four days later they couldn’t even score one against Fifa’s 189th ranked team.
The players seemed to have lost all the confidence they had at Soccer City, with Lebo Mothiba being the main culprit as he hit the crossbar from right on the goalline.
It was like watching Mr Bean.
I don’t usually go after coaches, because they are not on the pitch.
But I have to point the finger at Stuart Baxter for this mess.
The Englishman got things horribly wrong for this game.
Even with the tough playing conditions on an artificial pitch, he changed a winning formula.
His decision to play Dino Ndlovu as an extra striker instead of winger, Aubrey Modiba may have been a signal of intent.
But that seemingly positive move changed Bafana’s entire attacking dynamic and ultimately cost them the three points in their Afcon qualifying campaign.
With the ball moving faster on Astroturf and South Africa’s dominance from the Soccer City rout, Baxter should have not have altered his formation, which gave them more width on Saturday.
The coach’s decision to bring in Ndlovu to partner Lebo Mothiba narrowed Bafana’s attack. Without Modiba out on the left flank, SA lost the ability to stretch the opposition’s defence.
Bafana had 75 percent ball possession all game but failed to create any real chances in the first half.
Most of their attacks were crosses to their twin strikers.
And with the poor quality of the deliveries, they hardly called the goalkeeper into action. The closest they got to scoring was an own goal.
Their best chances came when they moved the ball down the flanks or half spaces and finding a man in the middle, like with Mothiba and Modiba’s 69th-minute chance.
Modiba, though, had been introduced in the second half and deployed on the right flank.
So when his opportunity came, the left-footed player had to shoot with his right. And that didn’t come off well.
By then, the rest of the team had lost their nerve in front of goal and only forced the keeper into four saves from their 22 shots at goal. Swak.
Modiba was the only substitute who got any meaningful game time.
Why Baxter didn’t turn to Thembinkosi Lorch for width or Teboho Mokoena for some thrust through the middle, only he knows.
There was skaars a look-in for Cape Town City trio Thami Mkhize, Thabo Nodada and Gift Links, who could each have made a contribution.
Baxter will learn that his tinkering didn’t work here. And he must also be reminded about his idea to ask Percy Tau to lead the line against Libya in last month’s goalless draw in Durban.
On a heavy pitch, he tried to play carpet football instead of his target man up front. This time the shoe was on the other foot, but we got the same result.
Maybe Baxter just needs an assistant to bounce ideas off after all.