WORLD CUP HOSTS – SOUTH AFRICA TEAM OVERVIEW
On 15 May 2004, South Africa was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup. As part of a new FIFA policy (later abandoned) to rotate the event between football confederations, only African nations had been allowed to bid.
How Did They Qualify
South Africa qualified by virtue of being the host nation. For the other African nations, qualification to 2010 World Cup was accomplished through the qualification tournament for the 2010 African Cup of Nations.
However, in order to qualify for the Cup of Nations, South Africa participated in the above-mentioned qualification tournament in 2008. They came second in their group and were eliminated by virtue of being the worst second place team. They finished with a record of 2 wins (against Equatorial Guinea), 3 losses and 1 draw. At the time, they consoled themselves and blamed their poor result to the coaching change made prior to the second round; coach Parreira resigned (due to his wife’s illness) and was replaced by compatriot Santana.
What to Expect
- Hometown Success: In 1996, only 4 years after being allowed to compete in international competition, South Africa won the African Cup of Nations on its home turf in Johannesburg. In the finals, they faced Tunisia whom they beat 2-0. However, in 1996, South Africa was ranked 16th by FIFA. Presently, they are ranked 85th.
- Hometown Success, part 2: Last year, in the summer of 2009, South Africa hosted the Confederations Cup and placed 4th. They stumbled in the group stage, drawing 0-0 with Iraq, beating New Zealand 2-0 and then losing to Spain 0-2. However, that was enough to get them a berth in the semi-finals. They had some gutsy performances against Brazil (0-1) in the semi-finals and then Spain (2-3) in the game for third place. Thereby, raising expectations for the World Cup.
- Another Coaching Change: After the Confederations Cup, they lost 5 exhibition games (at home 1-3 v. Serbia, away 0-2 v. Germany, away 0-1 v. Ireland, away 0-1 v. Norway, away 0-1 v. Iceland) and won 1 (home 1-0 v. Madagascar). So coach Santana was re-moved and Parreira returned. In the next 2 exhibition games under Parreira, South Africa did not fare any better (home 0-0 v. Japan, home 0-0 v. Jamaica). Final exhibition game tally, 1 win, 5 losses and 2 draws while conceding 8 goals and scoring only 2 in 8 games.
- Formation: Under Santana, they normally played a 4-4-2. In the Confederations Cup, they played a 4-2-3-1 and sacrificed offense in order to press more and stifle the high-powered offense of Spain and Brazil. Upon his return, Parreira returned to the 4-4-2 and brought back 32-year old striker McCarthy, hoping that would translate into more goals but it did not.
- Line-up: Parreira has said that 65-70% of the squad will be local players because many of the players playing abroad are not regulars. Some local players may bump players plying their trade abroad, but in reality, most players have virtually guaranteed spots. In the starting line-up, expect to see perhaps 4 or 5 players playing in the “local” league (in italics). Expect the following line-up in a 4-4-2:
- GK : Fernandez (31 years old) – Arminia Bielefeld
- DF : Masilela (24) – Maccabi Haifa; Booth (32) – Mamelodi Sundowns ; Mokoena (29) – Portsmouth; Gaxa (25)- Mamelodi Sundowns
- MF : Sibaya (32) – Rubin Kazan; Modise (27) – Orlando Pirates ; Dikgacoi (25) – Fulham; Pienaar (27) – Everton
- FW : Mphela (25) – Mamelodi Sundowns ; McCarthy (32) – Blackburn.
- Defense: They have tall central defenders. Mokoena, at 6’2” is the captain; he is a hard tackling central defensive midfielder who plays mostly as a centerback for the national team. The other centerback, Booth, at 6’6” is a fan favourite. Fullbacks Masilela and Gaxa are known more for their defensive play. If goal scoring continues to be a problem, look for them to be replaced.
- Offensive Power: Parreira has opted to replace the 24-year old Parker (FC Twente) who scored both goals against New Zealand with 32-year old McCarthy. McCarthy plays like a “9”. Pienaar who plays as a winger for Everton is their star player; for the national team, he is allowed to freely roam the midfield. Mphela scored both goals against Spain in the Confederations Cup and the lone goal in the exhibition game against Serbia. Overall, they are an offensively challenged team; they scored only 2 goals in 8 exhibition games while conceding 8 goals. Their games included some tough opponents like Germany (FIFA rank 6) and Serbia (19), some mid-pack opponents like Republic of Ireland (35), Norway (32) and Japan (43), and also some weak opponents like Jamaica (81), Iceland (92) and Madagascar (158).
i know what you mean 433 but you cant deny that montero was the most respected defender because of his hack jobs so to speak…mind you futbol is a beautiful sport but theres two sides to every coin…if we all played like brazilians where would the garra uruguayos possess come from?
My point-of-view is that Garra Charrua is a never-say-die attitude, no giving up even when you’re down (coming from behind to beat Brazil 2-1 in 1950, beating Argentina 4-2 after being down 2-1 in 1930, etc). Not the dirty play that it has now been associated with, the result of Uruguay substituting talent with roughness/dirty play. I mean in 1950 guys like Schiaffino and Ghiggia awed the world with their skill; And for a while, Uruguay played the beautiful sport, that was our identity. But as the skills decayed, we tried to compensate with roughness/dirty play (just watch a sandlot soccer game, the kid who plays the dirtiest is the one with the least skill).
Fortunately, as I mentioned once in an earlier post, it appears that Uruguayan soccer was coming out of the “Dark Ages” with all the young skilled players that are being “produced”. This year, our U17, U20 and Senior Team made it to the World Championships, only 1 of 8 nations to have accomplished it.
playing dirty isnt what im speaking of… did you ever watch a match from the 1970 world cup? the last world cup uruguay made it to the final four? They tried against pele but im sure their “rough play” had something to do with goin that far aside from winning games…im not denying uruguay has turned a new leaf as of late its been a really crappy few years for uruguay regardless of rough or dirty play…i dont remember uruguay losing a game due to red cards in a while (maybe a few copa americas ago in 3rd place matches) the skill has always been there and the notion of substituting roughness over skill is nonsense, hay que meter, with balls, winning every ball, and scoring goals. vamo uruguay carajo
I would say that to some extent Uruguay has a bad reputation of playing rough. But then I checked the ESPN stats (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/playerdiscipline?league=fifa.worldq.conmebol&year=2009&cc=5901) and in this 2010 WCQ (which for me was a vast improvement), in the top 37 most carded players, Peru had 7, URUGUAY 6 PLAYERS, Argentina 5, Bolivia 4, Ecuador/Paraguay/Chile 3, Venezuela/Brazil/Colombia 2. For Uruguay, this included Perez (6 YC), Caceres (4 YC, 1RC), Lugano (5 YC), Godin (3 YC, 1 RC) , Cebolla (5 YC, 1 RC), Eguren (4 YC).
Also, comparing the last nine teams to have qualified: New Zealand (6 YC, 1 RC in 8 games), Nigeria (14-0-12 games), Cameroon (17-1-12 games), Algeria (31-0-13 games 2.4 YC per game), Greece (22-1-12 games), Slovenia (24-0-12 games), Portugal (13-0-12 games), France (13-1-12 games), URUGUAY (51 YELLOW CARDS -4 RED CARDS -20 games, 2.5 YC per game, we cannot afford to maintain this ratio in the World Cup.)
IMO, if you get carded, then rough play is not beneficial:
- First, a player with a yellow card will shy away from another potential physical encounter. This has happened with Perez, Lugano, Godin, Eguren.
- A yellow card in 2 consecutive games and the player sits out. This has resulted in a muscial chair of sorts in the defense (Lugano, Caceres and Godin had to miss games), and is the only reason someone like Valdez got his cap. Cebolla has also had to sit out some games. It’s also the reason that Forlan sat out the game against Peru (but his 2nd yellow against Venezuela was a “tactical” foul, a deliberate handball to stop a counter-attack). The yellow cards have played havoc with Tabarez trying to have the same line-up.
- We lost the Argentina game as a result of Caceres’ red card, but that was more an act of desperation and not rough play; so that’s a different category. The only game where a red card could have hurt us was Valdez’ red card against Colombia but one of their players got carded later. Godin’s and Cebolla’s red card were at the end of their respective games. But that meant Godin had to miss the game against Colombia and Cebolla missed the games against Costa Rica and 1 or 2 (?) 1st round games.
facts are always facts and theres always room for improvement in the discipline area but in the end mexico can say what they want…
LOS DE AFUERA SON DE PALO