Group A - South Africa

Group A:

South Africa

Mexico

Uruguay

France

South Africa

Nickname: Bafana Bafana (The Boys, The Boys)

Colors: Green and Gold

Current World Ranking: 81

History: Soccer got its start in South Africa thanks to British Colonialism but remained segregated thanks to South African apartheid for decades. In fact, the national team was banned from international competition by FIFA from 1962 to 1992 as a result. In that respect, SA is still in its international soccer infancy. They qualified for both the 1998 and 2002 Cups, but didn’t advance past the group stages in either. Last year they competed in the 2009 Confederations Cup, which is a tournament hosted by the host of the upcoming World Cup that features the host nation, the current World Cup holders, and the top team from each of he 6 Confederations. The 2009 Confederations Cup featured South Africa, Italy, Spain, United States, Brazil, Iraq, Egypt and New Zealand. SA played well above their expectation and advanced past the group stage after a draw with Iraq, win over New Zealand, and loss to Spain. They went on to lose to Brazil 1-0, then lost the 3^rd place game to Spain 3-2, finishing 4^th. Overall they played admirably and proved that they belong on the international stage.

Players: The vast majority of the players compete for club teams in the South African Football Association. It will become obvious as we go through the analysis of all the teams that the quality of a national team is best measured by the number of players that compete in the top division of the major international soccer leagues – English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, and German Bundesliga. Other nations have respectable leagues, but the best of the best generally play in one of those 4 leagues. To that end, South Africa only has 9 players competing for clubs in Europe’s leagues, and only three playing in any of the big 4 leagues, all of which are in the English Premier League.

Steven Pienaar: Born in Johannesburg in 1982, he plays for Everton in the English Premier League as a speedy left or right midfielder. His nickname, for some fucking reason, is The Little Peanut. He made his international debut in 2002 and has since accumulated 46 appearances, or caps as they’re known, scoring only twice. Personally I believe Pienaar is a quality player, even though I can’t stand him because he plays for Everton, the archrivals to my favorite club, Liverpool. While he is extremely quick and very adept at getting behind defenders, I feel his ball control leaves a lot to be desired and he doesn’t score enough goals, especially considering his speed.

On a side note, according to Wikepedia, Piennar is currently being sued by his ex-girlfriend for breaking a promise to marry her while she claims that he took away her contraceptives and consequently got her pregnant and now she has to live with the stigma of being an unwed single mother. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t score more goals.

Aaron Mokoena: The current captain of the team and known as “The Axe” for his ruthless tackling, Mokoena plays in a defensive midfield position and is the most capped player on the SA squad with 99, having made his debut at the age of 19 in 1999. Currently he plays for Portsmouth Football Club in England though he’s only been featured in 20 matches for them, scoring once, since being acquired from Blackburn before the start of the current season. Ironically I just saw him play for the first time the other day as Portsmouth was playing my team, Liverpool. The Axe came on as a substitute with about 20 minutes left in the game and promptly got a yellow card. So basically we can all look forward to this guy breaking a bunch of legs in South Africa in a few months.

Benni McCarthy: Born in 1977 in Cape Town, McCarthy currently has 83 caps to his name and is the leading scorer in South African football history with 29, including one each in he ’98 and ’02 World Cups. He actually retired from international competition after 2002 but is back to help his country. He’s spent the last 4 years with the Blackburn Rovers club in England where he scored 52 goals in 140 matches before completing a transfer to West Ham United in February of this year. He may be up there in years as far as soccer players are concerned, but he’s proven to be an experienced goal scorer, even at the highest level.

Also interesting, and also according to Wikipedia, McCarthy was dating model Amy Leigh Barnes who was found murdered in her apartment in 2008. The moral of the story is, root for the South Africans but don’t date them.

Prediction: Overall, the Bafana’s appear to have a mix of young talent and experienced veterans. They will have a huge home-field advantage with the entire nation supporting them, especially because so many of them play for clubs in Africa, and likely a good bit of support from the international community that generally roots for the host nation. That said, they are going to have a very difficult time advancing past the group stages. France and Mexico are the odds on favorites to take the top two spots but this is an extremely tough group to predict. I wouldn’t be surprised to see South Africa grab the second spot but I also wouldn’t be surprised to see them in last place here either. Personally I’ll be rooting for them against all the teams in this Group, I’m just not sure that it will matter much.