Let’s aim to be better and not bitter

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Dear disgruntled Bafana Bafana fans, for the 2018 World Cup, pick an African side and throw your support behind them; share in their joy and their pain. It’s going to be a wild ride, writes MARSHALL GOUTS.

It’s World Cup time, minus Bafana Bafana, a feeling with which South African football fans have become familiar. But that shouldn’t deter us from watching the world’s biggest sporting event.

Among other things, I’m disappointed by the fact Percy Tau will not be able to don the national team colours and display his immense talent against the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah.

But, as was the case at USA 1994, Germany 2006 and Brazil 2014, South Africa will not be rubbing shoulders with the world’s elite in their bid to be crowned champions.

A bitter feeling, no doubt, but one Bafana and their fans have sadly got used to.

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For coaches, players and the South African Football Association, this should serve as a time of reflection: pondering the way forward for the national team.

It shouldn’t, however, deter us from watching the global spectacle. In fact, we should lend our support to our fellow African teams.

Yes, it could have been us at Russia 2018 – at the expense of Senegal – but we just weren’t good enough.

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Let’s not get bogged down by our failure as a national team, but rather celebrate the African participants as they look to eclipse Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) in becoming the first African team(s) to book their spot in the semi-finals.

If Nigeria, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco and Tunisia are to exceed expectations in Russia, they will require their crop of young, talented world-beaters to step up and be counted. And why not?

The likes of Alex Iwobi, Salah, Sadio Mane, Achraf Hakimi and Wahbi Khazri ply their trade in Europe’s top leagues week in and week out; we see them holding their own and often even outperforming their European counterparts.

Take Salah. If he can reach the same level of form for Egypt in the World Cup that he has for Liverpool, we could well see an African team making history this summer.

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Pick your African side and throw your support behind them; share in their joy and their pain. It’s going to be a wild ride!

– This article first appeared in the June issue of SoccerClub magazine

Follow on Twitter @MarshallGouts

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Marshall Gouts