Football
Mark Herman, KweséESPN 7y

The task facing Bafana coach Stuart Baxter

South Africa's national football team start their next mission to advance to a major tournament on Saturday when their 2019 African Nations Cup qualifying campaign kicks off in Nigeria.

The Bafana Bafana contingent, led by returning coach Stuart Baxter, are in Uyo ahead of the toughest of starts they could have expected -- the Super Eagles away.

Nigeria have always been a bogey team for South Africa -- somewhat of an understatement considering Bafana have never beaten their West African opponents in a competitive international since their first encounter 25 years ago.

The closest South Africa came to ending that hoodoo was during 2015 Nations Cup qualifying when a brilliant Tokelo Rantie brace put his side in a commanding position after 49 minutes, only for substitute Sone Aluko to score two goals in the final quarter of the match to snatch a 2-2 draw.

That draw, rescued in the fourth minute of stoppage time, meant Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2015 tournament -- South Africa's only consolation on the day, having already qualified themselves.

At the time of that match -- in November 2014 -- Bafana were playing above expectations when Shakes Mashaba led the team to 11 points from five qualifiers during a honeymoon period on his return to the national coaching post.

Playing with freedom of expression and very little of anything else, Bafana nevertheless failed at the tournament proper, limping out at the group stage after defeats to Algeria and Ghana, and a draw with Senegal.

By this time, it was painfully obvious to Safa bosses that the team -- despite several morale-boosting performances in friendlies -- was always going to be tactically inept and unable to cope with superior opposition under Mashaba's guidance.

So in steps Baxter, a coach who is held in high regard in local circles thanks to his trophy-winning achievements with Kaizer Chiefs.

Baxter's trademarks are organisation and structure, his tactics focused on keeping things tight at the back and playing on the counter-attack. Ask the Englishman about it and he will more than happily take you through the details of 'transitions, transitions, transitions'.

It sounds good. And Baxter talks a good game. Theoretically it could work, because what South Africa needs more than free-flowing, uninhibited football is several good results that ensure qualification for another major tournament (and not by default as hosts).

Baxter has retained the majority of the squad Mashaba used and recalled one or two important overseas players who had fallen out with his predecessor such as lively forward Kermit Erasmus and highly rated Dutch-based central midfielder Kamohelo Mokotjo - although the latter is unavailable as he undergoes knee surgery.

His major challenge, however, will be instilling his philosophy on a group of players who for the past few years have been allowed to choose their own playing style without much attention paid to tactics and structure.

Baxter will have a role for every player who enters the pitch, and they will be expected to show discipline, to track back and defend when the ball is lost, and to retain the team's defensive shape.

Suddenly, some of South Africa's senior stars who may have just been 'pitching up and playing their game' will be given hard work to do, and tactics to follow. Others, one would think, will welcome the new approach.

The experienced Baxter knows, too, that this is the pragmatic method many of the better international teams employ to go far in tournaments. South Africa do not have a lot of recent experience in major tournaments.

"Qualifying for every major tournament must be the ambition of the South African national team. I don't want to be a national coach where we're not expected to do anything," Baxter told the media recently.

"I had a little bit of that in Finland [as national team coach], even though that's a nice place to be because we played two draws with Germany and we were world champions in everyone's eyes.

"But I prefer the pressure of people expecting - being realistic, but expecting. That's what we should be about. We should be expecting and hoping that we can qualify for the major tournaments."

Starting with a clean slate at the start of the 2019 qualifiers works in Baxter's favour. His only excuse, a very good excuse, will be the amount of time he has spent with the squad -- barely two weeks -- having only agreed to the job on May 4 and named his first squad on May 25.

Baxter's recent underwhelming season with club side SuperSport United -- a team that was already littered with quality players by the PSL's standards when he took over -- suggests he might have trouble getting South Africa to fire immediately.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, Nigeria come into the game with new coach Gernot Rohr on an unbeaten run of seven matches since taking charge. William Troost-Ekong, Ogenyi Onazi and even the absent Victor Moses have already stated their confidence that a win will be forthcoming.

As if they needed another reason to win besides maintaining their unblemished record against South Africa, there is now the added edge of a grudge to settle for the Super Eagles.

^ Back to Top ^