At the moment the Under 23 national team's hopes of qualifying are still alive but hinges on how other teams perform in this group. The South Africans had a shocking start to the qualifiers when they shared the spoils 2-2 with minnows Ethiopia in their opening game.
It was widely expected that Steve Komphela and his charges would raid Addis Ababa and bring back maximum points from the Horn of Africa country to launch their campaign in grand style.
On the same weekend that South Africa country fumbled in east Africa, the battle for supremacy in west Africa saw Nigeria grab full points at home against Ghana, setting the scene for what the future might look like in this group - considered the group of death. It is an open secret that South Africa are going to struggle even when they host Nigeria here in eight weeks' time. Nothing but victory will level the playing field. If Komphela and his team get maximum points from Nigeria, chances of going to the top of the group are even bigger with four points in the bag.
It is likely that Ethiopia will surrender the full dole to Ghana in Accra. In that case, Ghana will also be on four points to share the top spot with SA.
That will leave Nigeria second with three points and Ethiopia at the bottom with a single point from playing SA. If for some reason this becomes the case, the third round will be even more interesting since South Africa will enjoy home advantage to Ghana, while Nigeria travels to Addis Ababa. In that case, South Africa will have to beat Ghana to make their travel to west Africa in return legs a simple exercise in which they can afford to settle for draws.
Meanwhile, Safa is to launch an eight-nations tournament today that has been designed to keep the players in top condition despite the two-month break. The tournament will feature amongst others Botswana, Lesotho, Cameroon and China. This will give Komphela an opportunity to drill it into his players that they have to start winning on the road to maximise their chances of going to the Olympics.
South Africa missed out on the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece, and another disappointing outcome two years before the country hosts the World Cup will be a disaster. It is widely expected that the current crop of players in the squad will form the nucleus of the Bafana Bafana team that will compete in 2010. Some of the players in the squad have risen through the ranks and already form part of the regular Bafana squad.
Lerato Chabangu, Innocent Mdledle, Clifford Ngobeni, Eleazar Rodgers, Erwin Isaacs, Masilo Modubi and James Madidilane have caught the attention of senior national team selectors on certain occasions. (Sunday World).
