South Africa loses its World Cup spirit

JOHANNESBURG – They stood on a curb in Soweto, hands in the pockets of their jackets, faces staring at the ground. There was a chill to the late afternoon. Suddenly, Soweto felt colder than it had in those first bright days of the World Cup.
“Bafana Bafana, I’m disappointed,” said Simon Baloyi, a young man in his early 20s, shaking his head.
A woman behind him nodded slowly.
“They suck,” she added.
How fast South Africa has turned on its soccer team.
Barely more than two weeks ago, Soweto was alive. So was South Africa. The entire country had come together for its national team, Bafana Bafana. This was a new thing, as Bafana Bafana hadn’t given South Africa much to be excited about in previous years. For most of nfl jerseys three decades it was forbidden to compete internationally because of apartheid and even after those restrictions were lifted in 1992 it still only qualified for two World Cups, never advancing past the first round.
But this time seemed different. This time South Africa was hosting the World Cup and every host team in the history of the World Cup has always advanced to the second round. So when Bafana Bafana played well in friendlies leading up to the tournament, people began to believe that the magic of playing at home would somehow push the team into the round of 16.
More than a few suggested Bafana Bafana could win the whole World Cup no matter how ridiculous a thought that might have been. They believed it. South Africa was in love with Bafana Bafana. The day before the World Cup there was a huge parade for the team that was held in the suburb of Sandton. Hundreds of thousands of people, both black and white, lined the streets wearing the yellow jersey of the mostly black Bafana team. People talked about the team bringing the races together; white people rushing to adopt a sport that has long been the domain of black South Africa.
And when Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the first goal of the World Cup, South Africa went mad.
Eventually, Bafana Bafana wound up in a 1-1 tie with Mexico, but the country still pulsed with hope. A tie with Mexico was victory nonetheless. The party lasted for days.
Then it died. The death came last Wednesday in Pretoria when the South Africans lost 3-0 to Uruguay in a performance as dismal those of previous years. The defeat was so thorough that the only way for Bafana Bafana to advance to the next round is to beat France and hope to make up a goal difference of Warren Sapp Jersey at least five or six goals with the loser of Mexico-Uruguay.
In other words, South Africa will be the first host to not move on.
Now, nobody is wearing yellow jerseys anymore. The radio announcers don’t shout “Bafana Bafana!” the way they had before. Nobody sings. Nobody dances. It’s as if the euphoria was sucked from the country in a matter of hours while losing to Uruguay.
In the days that followed Bafana’s defeat, stories of dissention among the players surfaced. Rumors of cliques arose with one paper reporting that the players from Soweto had distanced themselves from those who came from KwaZulu-Natal on the country’s eastern coast.
One of the KwaZulu-Natal players, the beautifully named MacBeth Sibaya, ripped his teammates for their effort against Uruguay and told the South Africa Sunday Times: “It will be like climbing Mount Everest against France.”
Of course, France has its own problems, with an uninspiring tie, a devastating loss and a team mutiny on Sunday in which the players refused to practice after coach Raymond Domenech kicked striker Nicolas Anelka off the team. But even if the French team doesn’t try against South Africa, Bafana Bafana’s chances still look meager.
“My heart is broken, and my kidney too,” lamented Fortune Mpofu, a waiter at a restaurant in Alberton just outside Johannesburg.
Now the country will try to figure out went wrong again.
On the street in Soweto, Freddie Mnyathel blamed the team’s coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, a Brazilian. Parreira did not do enough to help Bafana Bafana’s weak scoring attack, said Mnyathel, who also described South Africa’s players as “very, very lazy.”
Standing with Mnyathel, Raphale Maruping said Parreira is a good coach, too good for Bafana. “For the standard of nfl store our players we don’t need him as our coach,” he said. “We need someone who is going to come in and grow our team.”
They shook their heads. In the distance several small fires burned in Soweto; small piles of trash, tires, pieces of shanties. The air was cool and heavy and smelled of smoke. Winter had arrived in the place that just days before was the happiest place on earth.
Once again Bafana Bafana had failed South Africa.
The bitter end is about to come.