Bafana Bafana: A true reflection of the sorry state of South African football.

Image credit: Lorenz Kohler Twitter

For Friday night's crucial encounter against Liberia, Bafana Bafana coach, Hugo Broos, did everything almost right, except for the poor second half substitutions.

His starting line-up included six Mamelodi Sundowns players, a team that is currently the best when it comes to South African football.

On top of the Sundowns players, there was Lyle Foster, probably South Africa's best export at the moment. There was Percy Tau, who doing well for Al Ahly, and Bongokuhle Hlongwane, who is also enjoying some good form in the MLS.

Broos's line-up, in essence, was arguably the best that Mzansi has to offer, yet they failed to beat Liberia, who are ranked 150th by Fifa.

The 2-2 draw, which might see Bafana failing to qualify for AFCON in Ivory Coast next year January, was a true reflection of the standard of South African football.

In the domestic league, Sundowns have no peers, they are more than 20 points ahead of two of the country's biggest teams, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.

Pirates and Chiefs, in a South Africa with a healthy state of football, should be the biggest domestic suppliers of Bafana playing personnel.

But that is not the case, simply because the two giants don't have enough quality in their ranks.

Pirates's best player at the moment is Monnapule Saleng, who, in all honesty, has a long way to go when it comes to international football.

As for Chiefs, they can't even provide the national team with a single player.

Let us say for example, that Amakhosi were the Manchester United of South African football, which in a way, they are!

Now imagine a Man United without a player in the England squad, would that not be a disaster?

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Moving on, let us look at our foreign players, and where they are playing their football.

Our most expensive export at the moment, Lyle Foster, is playing in the English Championship.

When you look at the EPL, La Liga, Ligue One, and the Serie A, there are many African players doing well for their clubs, but South Africans are missing.

Do we even have a Serie A ready player in this country? I doubt it.

So, while it hurts to see Bafana giving away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 at home against Liberia, maybe there is a truth that we have to accept.

And that truth is, international football has left us so far behind, we are left with the likes of Liberia as our peers. 

Broos can go, but the quality of Bafana will remain the same, problem not solved.

This article will be short and sweet, like Broos's post match conference.

If there is one thing Bafana Bafana knows how to do very well, disappointing the nation takes the cake! They are so good at it, they have no competitors.

On Friday evening at Orlando Stadium, Bafana were at their disappointing best again, giving away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 against Liberia, a result that has left their AFCON qualification hopes in jeopardy.

As is always the case, Hugo Broos will take the fall for the result, with his second half substitutions not doing him any favours.

Broos should have done better when it comes to managing the game through calculated substitutions.

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For starters, Luke Le Roux was having a nightmare of a second half, Broos had no business keeping him on the pitch, Sithole, or even Timm, should have been brought on in his place.

Zwane was not at his best, but maybe his substitution came too early, Bafana needed to keep possession, and use the ball intelligently in the final third, in other words, they still needed Zwane to stay a little longer on the pitch.

The coach's changes might have cost Bafana the game, but there is a bigger problem than that, and that is the quality of our players.

Here is a game where Bafana enjoyed 55% of not so profitable possession, I must say.

They fashioned 16 goal attempts, with only five on target, with glaring misses from Percy Tau and Bongokuhle  Hlongwane, something Broos could do nothing about.

Despite having most of the ball, Bafana were just scrappy with it, like a team that was playing together for the first time, without any identity nor synergy.

In short, Bafana were just disappointing.

Perhaps, what Friday evening's game highlighted, in bold and bright colors, is the lack of quality in our national team.

We are not any superior than Liberia, or Mozambique, Angola and others smaller football nations like we are.

That is a fact we need to accept as soon as possible. Improvement will only come once we step out of the bubble of superiority illusion we are living in.

To avoid a lot of unnecessary heart breaks and useless finger pointing, we need to accept that Bafana are a true reflection of the standards of our players.

Just like our Under-23s showed us against Congo.

So, to keep this sweet and short, Broos can go, but Bafana will remain Bafana - boys on the international stage.