South Africa has always been immense at keeping possession, passing the ball, but one key thing: Save for the days of Benni McCarthy South Africa's finishing has been consistently atrocious. If this was a one-off thing I could say that South Africa just had bad luck on the day, but if this is something that happens over and over again for years, then its a sign of weakness. Why does Zambia succeed, but South Africa fails? Becuase they consistently create players who know where the back of the net is. That's why Zambia has always been the best South African team save for the brief Radebe / Fish / McCarthy era. I always believed that the difference between South Africa being a top team and being mediocre is the final third. Finish off chances and you will be one of Africa's best. But as it stands - despite all the possession, all the nice footwork, all the superb passing play, all the dribbling South Africa is far worse than Senegal or Nigeria. Simply because they almost always fail at the key task of putting the ball in the back of the net. As it stands also Sadio Mane is one of maybe 3-4 attacking players in the world with the sheer capacity to create something from nothing. But I agree Senegal should be playing better than they are - something in general seems to be wrong with Kouyate and Gueye of late, because they have struggled both in the league and the national team, especially given they are amongst the best in the world in their position. One thing of note: Despite missing Keita Balde, Pape Souare and Kara Mbodj, Senegal was deep enough to bring in Moussa Konate (absolutely rocking it this year at his French club) and Saliou Ciss from the bench, while players like Moussa Sow, Pape Alioune Ndiaye sat this one out... Senegal has a bench that no African team has had in years, if ever. I do agree they are not playing as well as the team sheet would suggest.
Yes finishing is the only thing South Africa lack. The last proper striker South Africa had was Katlego Mphela who played from 2009- 2012 for the national team. He had a scoring rate of 1 goal every two games for the national team. However I have to disagree about the Zambia statement. Zambia for the most part are second behind South Africa barring maybe two brief spells in 2004-2007 and 2011-2012. Other than that Zambia are second best to South Africa. I don’t even think the most avid Zambia fan will claim what you’re claiming about them. South Africa are normally ranked higher than Zambia too just to add that fact (although I don’t put much stock in rankings). South Africa produces better keepers, defenders and midfielders on the regular but they beat us when it comes to strikers. They don’t have the most prolific strikers but their strikers are generally better. Let’s also not exaggerate how far behind South Africa are from the top teams in Africa. It’s fine margins between the teams. In fact Stuart Baxter yesterday wa stalking jut about this saying of the teams that qualified so far, they aren’t really that much better than SA. They just are more clinical. I mean Nigeria have been riding their luck the last few times against South Africa and finally lost the last match between the two teams. Never is there a thrashing either side Between South Africa and these top African teams. In fact yesterday was the first time in a while that Senegal have beaten South Africa. Now about Senegal. Their depth is quite “questionable”. I think despite all the household names, names don’t play football. What I see on the field of play from Senegal on the general is a team that doesn’t play too well. Since the Afcon 2015 up until now they just don’t play that well. Their football at times leaves a lot to be desired. They can get away with that on the continent for sure but on the world stage they will get punished. What happens at the World Cup when they meet a team that can dominate them like yesterday but have a finisher? They will surely lose, by a big margin even. One thing that I can agree with is the fact that Sadio Mane is one of the best attacker’s in the world. He is underrated because he is African. I don’t know about top 3-4 players (with guys like De Bruyne, Özil, Isco, Messi, Ronaldo etc) but surely top 10.
About the teams qualified so far I think Nigeria and Egypt are Africa’s best chances at the World Cup. I think they can both reach the quarter finals. Nigeria could possibly go to the semi finals . Senegal are at most a last 16 team unless there is a dramatic improvement.
He was OK, but not spectacular. Zambia has 9 COSAFA finals appearances to South Africa's 4. Zambia has 1 AFCON title, 2 silvers and three bronzes. South Africa has 1-1-1, all coming from the 1996-2000 period, when South Africa was the strongest. Prior to 1992 its hard to debate given South Africa's exclusion from world sports. But Zambia had a golden generation that died in 1993 and who could have really turned heads in USA. After circa 2002 Zambia and South Africa have had similar results at the AFCON minus the fact that Zambia won one tournament. So overall: 1990-1994 and 2010 onwards Zambia has been better, 1995-2002 South Africa was better, between 2002-2010 they were similarly underwhelming, but Zambia had the better results. Add to that Zambian talent seems much better than South African. South Africa has had better defenders and mostly better keepers, but Mweene is as good as they come in Africa. But Zambia has better midfielders. South Africa is far behind - because like I said: poor finishing is ritual for South Africa. After it happens a dozen times or so the 'riding your luck' argument is meaningless. I didn't state he was one of the top 3-4 players in the world, but of his type he is behind guys like Messi and de Bruyne... and that's where my list ends. He's better than Isco, especially this season.
Senegal is an enigma to me. They have the players for a deep run, but do they have the team? I am afraid they may do an Eto'o-Cameroon like performance (vide Mane-Senegal). Anything other than a dishonorable exit from Tunisia will be a surprise to me. I am torn between Herve Renard's Morocco and Cote d'Ivoire. I would love to see Renard with an African team at the World Cup given his national team record... Plus he's just such a priceless sight on the sidelines I fret for Cote d'Ivoire. They have found some quality in Bailly, Aurier, Seri, Kessie, but is it too liitle? Morocco could also be a surprise package.
For case in point why Zambia is superior. Two absolutely brilliant Zambian goals. The second one is mouth watering!
Cosafa means nothing. Not to us anyways. We have the same amount of cosafa titles regardless. Secondly last year when we won cosafa we sent U23s and the assistant coach to that tournament. We normally send a 3rd string teams composed of young players and Second division players. Dude this no debate. Even the Zambians don’t dare to claim this. We have 3 World Cup finals appearances, they have??? We have the same amount of Afcons but generally South Africa are ranked higher than Zambi. You’re clearly not familiar with Zambian football.Their best midfielder they have had in the last 10 years is Reinford Kalaba. Second to him is Isaac Chanda who was good but not anything special that we don’t have. Those guys won’t even crack the South African national team. Their players mostly play in South Africa so we know them very well. They hardly break into the top teams here Are you sure you know what the word “far” means ?? Come on now. We are within inches of those teams. Like I said they hardly even beat us. A team like Ivory Coast for example has never beaten us. We have better records against Egypt, Cameroon,and Ghana and he only team that properly is better than us in terms of record is Nigeria. It is riding their luck because it’s not like South Africa don’t score, they just don’t score as much as they should. And lastly Mweene is not the best keeper on the continent. He isn’t even the best keeper at Sundowns. Onyango is lol. Khune is actually the best on the continent. He is one of the best in the world actually and his ball disturbition is second to none in world football. Even at the olympics the commentators praised and knew about his distribution very well.
I watched this match today actually. Umm so they didn’t beat Cameroon. Neither did we when we played them and they went on to win the Afcon. They couldn’t beat a shambolic Cameroon in disarray. The only point made is how they aren’t better lol
Ivory Coast down 2-0 after 30 mins... shambolic defending!!! Ivory Coast don’t look like a World Cup team by the way they are playing.
and Morocco takes the lead 1-0 in Ivory Coast. The elephants now need 2 goals to progress. After three successive World Cup appearances, I think we can officially call this the end of an era for the West coast duo of Ivory Coast + Ghana. They had good teams for the last decade which culminated with the pair reaching the AFCON final back in 2015... Edit: and as I speak, Morocco goes 2-0 up...
Ivory Coast look disjointed and amateurish at times. The commentator was a lot more harsh about their performance. Morocco into the World Cup!
Wilmots is the worst coach I have seen in years. The guy had a 1-1-4 record with fricking Cote d'Ivoire. How do you even do that? Good thing is that Renard is a competent coach and will be interesting to see if he can work his magic outside of Africa. I fret for Tunisia... Ugh...
Watched 20 minutes of that game. Disgraceful match. Passing the ball around with no intent to score on either side.
DRCongo messed up the home game vs Tunisia, where they were visibly the better side. Cote d'Ivoire messed up when they were in control of the group but somehow managed to lose vs Gabon at home...
Well, not like Morocco didn't deserve to qualify. They managed to finish the group with no goals conceded, which isn't easy to do. I feel confident about the teams Africa will send. Senegal & Nigeria I expect will be playing good football, Morocco & Egypt are well drilled teams that could surprise people... and then there's Tunisia...
Of course they deserved to go. And yes, they conceeded no goals, but three of their games were 0:0 draws, which is the only reason Cote d'Ivoire were still in this. By no means take my knocking on Cote d'Ivoire are belittling Morocco. I'm happy, especially for Renard. Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco is a good quartet. And then there's Tunisia...
Yes and of course, who was the coach who ousted them in the end? None other than their former coach Herve Renard! Really glad to see Renard finally get a world cup. However, why was he ever let go of Ivory Coast? Or was it his own choice to leave to Lille?
He signed on for Cote d'Ivoire to win them a trophy. He won it and moved on. Don't know why Cote d'Ivoire didn't fight for him more... I think Renard wanted very much to coach Lille and his African hype was immense after the second African Cup in a row. Shame that Renard is a bit of a journeyman. He could do wonders if he stuck with one team and not leaves once he wins something.
it always has if you count the whole continent. Asia's elite have been doing well compared to Africa's elite in WC but if you compare the 20 best teams in each side Africa has always been better, football is the main sport in Africa and the difference of level between the best 10 and the next is very thin while in Asia the best 6 are way better than the rest.