With 98 days to go before the World Cup tournament kicks off in South Africa, Bafana Bafana still looks like a lost team.

This was evident during their 1-1 draw with Namibia in an international friendly at World Cup venue, Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban last night. Rudolf Bester scored for the visitors while Katlego Mphela netted for Bafana. Bafana’s performance during the encounter showed that there’s still a lot of work to be done.

The warning signs are there that Bafana might bomb out of the tournament in the group stages of the World Cup if they don’t rectify their game. Bafana took the game to their opponents, but that lasted only five minutes as they quickly took their feet off the pedal.

Unaware that Bester was behind him, casual Bafana defender Siyabonga Sangweni nearly gave away a goal in the eighth minute, but the Namibian striker, who earns his living at Maritzburg United, failed to beat keeper Itumeleng Khune. There were moments when Bafana tried to string together some neat passes that were mostly instigated by Bafana captain Teko Modise, but still those yielded nothing. Modise would lay off the passes for either Racing Genk right back Anele Ngcongca to surge forward, or, he would locate Lance Davids, Siphiwe Tshabalala and Lebohang Mokoena.

The Namibians threatened to score in the 14th minute when Bester, who only had Khune to beat, was distracted by Bradley Carnell’s timely intervention. An exchange of passes between Mokoena, Mphela and Siphiwe Tshabalala nearly resulted in a goal in the 29th minute, but Bafana were thwarted by Namibian goalkeeper, Attiel Mbaha. After that the Brave Warriors showed moments of brilliance, with Quinton Jacobs prominent in every move, as the former Ajax Cape Town player controlled the Namibians’ midfield.

It came as little surprise, when Bester broke the deadlock when he scored the Brave Warriors’ goal off a Razundara Tjikuzu pass four minutes before the interval. Tjikuzu had caught the Bafana defence manned by Bevan Fransman, Sangweni, Anele Ngcongca and Carnell napping, before laying the ball off for Bester to put it past Khune. Bafana coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, made a double substitution pulling out Mokoena and Davids for Tlou Segolela and Reneilwe Letsholonyane respectively at the beginning of the second half.

The Namibians started the second stanza with more confidence as they realised they could match Bafana.

Tlou and Daine Klate’s introduction after Parreira had pulled out Tshabalala on the hour mark brought life to Bafana. The left-footed SuperSport United midfielder threatened every time he had the ball. He was only on the field for three minutes, when Mbaha was forced to make a save in the 64th minute. Five minutes later, Bafana equalised through Katlego Mphela following a pass from Segolela.

After cutting through the left flank, Segolela fed Mphela, who initially miscued the ball before composing himself to send the partisan crowd into a frenzy. Last night’s match formed part of the 100 days celebration before the World Cup tournament starts, but Bafana spoilt many South African soccer followers’ mood as they failed to come to party. And if Bafana, who are rated 81st in the latest Fifa rankings released yesterday, cannot beat a 111th ranked Namibia, then who will they beat?

Source + Pic: dispatch.co.za