What is the point of the Cosafa Cup?
It’s a question I always hear doing the rounds in discussions at this time of year.
With the football season put to bed for a month or so already, the annual Southern-African regional tournament is like the laaste gatjie of a skyf.
And when it’s time to don the Bafana Bafana jersey, almost nobody has lus for it.
PSL clubs don’t release their best players, with most of them kicking off their preseason for the upcoming campaign already.
In recent years, the head coach of the national team hasn’t even been in the dugout to take charge of the team.
So why do we even bother?
This current tournament in Durban feels especially like an afterthought thanks to the Banyana Banyana drama this week.
The South Africa Football Association (Safa) didn’t even bother to send a liaison to help provide media access for stand-in coach Morena Ramoreboli and his charges.
All of this would be bad enough, but then there’s the football.
Wednesday night’s opening 1-1 Group A draw with Namibia was one of those frustrating and forgettable football matches I’ve watched in a long time.
I don’t want to play the man, with Ramoreboli proving a faithful and capable servant of South African football after winning the tournament two years back, but what struck me the most was just the lack of clear identity and pattern of play.
Maybe it’s just a matter of the team needing to gel.
And with Bafana set to tackle Botswana on Saturday and eSwatini on Tuesday as they look to progress to the semifinals and a possible final, things could improve.
But every national-team game should have a purpose.
It’s easy to say: “What do you expect? It’s Safa”. But then we’re missing the point.
For example, look at the Springbok alignment camps and the recent South Africa A men’s cricket tour to Sri Lanka. There is always a plan.
The players they select fit in with the vision they have of how they want their teams to play. And that goes from the bottom to the top.
Using the same details, positioning and tactics will help prepare the players currently in the jersey for the step up into the regular first-team setup.
Both Proteas Test coach Shukri Conrad and white-ball counterpart Rob Walter were on tour with the SA A side, while Bok leaders Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus are also ever-present as they kick off the Rugby Championship campaign this weekend.
This is how the Boks and Proteas are preparing for their respective World Cups later this year.
With an Afcon coming up for Bafana in January next year, I’m not necessarily saying that Bafana coach Hugo Broos needs to take charge of the Cosafa Cup team.
But are the current players ones that Broos would work with?
Of the 23-man squad in Durban with Ramoreboli, Stellenbosch ace Iqraam Rayners is the only player considered by Broos for his last game in charge against Morocco.
And Rayners didn’t even make it past the preliminary training camp.
This is not a swipe at Rayners. What I’m trying to say is, if the Cosafa Cup is going to be of any use ahead of Afcon, then we have to be more consistent with our planning.
Broos has made a huge deal about finally having a group of players he reckons will go on to form the core of his squad.
And he has also mentioned that players on the fringes will be involved in the future if they show an improvement in their game.
So where are those players in this Cosafa Cup squad?
Of the current crop representing Mzansi, Rayners, late call-up and Stellies teammate Sibongiseni Mthethwa, plus captain Lyle Lakay are probably the only manne Broos would have anywhere near his team.
But there is still a way to turn this into a success story.
Ramoreboli won the title last time with a squad with even less experience.
And he brought the likes of Yusuf Maart, Ethan Brooks, Rushine de Reuck and Bongokuhle Hlongwane to the fore.
All the coach needs to do is get the team to play with the same shape and employ the same patterns as Broos’ span.
For me, win or loss, this would give the Cosafa Cup the point it always seems to be missing.
matthew.marcus@inl.co.za