Last night, SA Under-23 side, led by David Notoane, saw their dream of participating in the AFCON U23 tournament to be held in Morocco, and the 2024 Paris Olympics die a sad death.
This comes after they failed to beat Congo at home in the first leg last week on Thursday. They drew 1-1, which meant they had a difficult task of trying to beat Congo away, something they couldn't achieve as the game ended goalless.
As I write this, Bafana Bafana are putting final touches to their preparations for the crunch AFCON 2024 qualifier against Liberia, to be played tonight at the
Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex.
Bafana need to beat Liberia away from home after giving away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 on Friday night at Orlando Stadium.
Bafana had a straightforward passage to AFCON 2024 to be held in Ivory Coast.
All they had to do was to beat 150th ranked Liberia twice to qualify from a three nations group after Zimbabwe were suspended.
But somehow, our national team managed to make such a simple task the most difficult one. Now their qualification hopes hang by a Liberia thread.
Earlier this month, AFCON Under-20 Championships were held in Egypt, a tournament won by Senegal after beating Gambia 2-0 in the final at Cairo International Stadium.
South Africa were notable absentees in the tournament after failing to make it past the COSAFA qualification tournament.
That meant our U20s missed out on a chance to gain valuable international experience, and giving U20 World Cup qualification a go.
In February, African Nations Championships (CHAN), were held in Algeria, a tournament won by Senegal after beating the hosts 5-4 on penalties.
Again, South Africa, a nation that is still holding on to an illusion of viewing itself as a football powerhouse in Africa, were missing in action.
In the domestic front, Mamelodi Sundowns are more than 20 points ahead of the rest in the Dstv Premiership log, and well on their way to a sixth league title in a row.
While two of South Africa's biggest clubs, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs are involved in a dogfight for second spot, which is currently occupied by SuperSport United.
How did we get here? One may ask, a point where two of the country's giants have become so ordinary, and our men's national teams have become a joke?
Only the powers that be have all the answers, but as things stand, whether Bafana qualifies for Ivory Coast 2024 ahead of Liberia or not, the dream of South Africa as a football nation is dying a slow and painful death.
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