DURBAN - Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki admitted that his side made life difficult for themselves after failing to qualify for the 2021 African Cup of Nations.
After playing out to a 1-1 draw with Ghana last Thursday, Ntseki’s charges required only a point against Sudan at the Al-Hilal Stadium in Khartoum but ended up being downed 2-0 by the home side.
“It is a big disappointment for all of us. We started off positively and were looking forward to qualifying. If you look at the games that we won, we became very confident. The expectations were that we would do well against Ghana at home and against Sudan away.
We made things difficult by drawing against Ghana at home as we had to come to Sudan facing foreign challenges,” said Ntseki.
Considering Sudan’s lowly ranking of 127, Bafana Bafana would have certainly fancied themselves to come home from the Northeastern African nation with a point. However, they clearly did not execute their plans properly as Malik Bakhit opened the scoring for the home side after just five minutes before Abdelrahman Yousif doubled the lead for the Secretarybirds after 32 minutes.
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“We tried hard to put everything together after our analysis of Sudan. We started on the wrong foot as we conceded early. The idea was not to concede because we were fully aware that we were in with a chance prior to kickoff as we had points. We allowed the Sudanese to get maximum points and conceding two goals in the first half was a setback,” said Ntseki.
Ntseki’s job will now be on the line and if history is to go by, it will be surprising if he does emerge with his job intact after the South African Football Association (Safa) conducts its review of his performance.
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The 51-year-old was a surprise appointment when he succeeded former Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter in August 2019.
He has nevertheless accepted responsibility for the national team’s failure which marks their fourth failure to qualify for the continental showpiece since 2010.
“The objective from Safa was clear, to qualify for every continental and world tournament to put Bafana Bafana on the map again in terms of the football we play and the results we get,
“My disappointment is huge for my personal growth and my achievements as coach of Bafana. The success of the team is my success and in failure it starts with me to say that I’ve failed as a coach,” said Ntseki.