Oh and just to adress your other points,
Zinedine or any other great player, is great in spite of his team mates or winning any medals.
That's what makes them great the ability to rise above instead of being drowned by it. Including winning palyer of the tournamnet when even their teams do badly.
Bafana is not building.
Winning is never secondary.
We just play, "fight" and lose like a team ranked 77 in the world.
It's either we good or bad team.
No such thing as building. Maybe we are just where we belong in the chain football wise.
Orlando Pirates are under achievers and they have been for the past 6 years, yet Teko has risen above that, that's what made him Footballer of the year two seasons running.
And you say he hasn't stepped up, step up to what may I ask?
He tries to carry the whole of Orlando Pirates and his teammates let him down by not pulling their weight and win something, somehow you blame Modise for that.
You say everyone wants him to succeed but I say "everyone is expecting too much from him", hence when they played on Wed the commentator inspite of Van Heerden being the worst on the pitch kept mentioning Teko by name saying he needs go off.
The boy has too much expected of him, that's why he didn't perform well in the Confed and he admits as much, because he was trying too hard to impress when he just needed to be himself.
We didn't loose like a team ranked 77th (and we were 72nd before Wed), you must have not watched the game. Serbia were just clinical that's why they won other than that they didn't look like they were going to beat us 'til they scored. And I attribute that to our defence combination (in second half) being new, Rowan hasn't played in the team for how long? Bongani 'til Wed had yet to play with Booth who only came back to the team just before the Confed.
OH! best believe we DO belong around 70th in the World of Football and that is because we always want to win and we forget to build for the future. Our undoing was that we held on the cla** of '96 for too long and forgot to build for today. Mamadou (and you) wants us to do what we've been doing all along axe the coach when we should be looking at problems to fix.
Like how is it that it took Pitso/Carlos to call Tsepo Masilela whenhe was in Mvela for him to make it into professional football. Like why was Teko Modise in the first division when his talent clear shows he should have been in top flight for longer. I'll tell you it's because when coaches come to take charge of Bafana and any team in SA they want to win at all cost because we won't understand loses. The best way to win is to run to the tried and tested players as a quick fix, instead of risking new yet untested talent we play with a personnel that is heavy on the legs and long in tooth.
I'll tell you this, if cool heads prevail at SAFA and we keep the coach until the World Cup we will perform better than your and Mamadou's expectations. Mark my words.
O! by the way football doesn't stop after 2010, what happens after that? Bring back Benny! fire the coach! etc. and come 2012 we won't qualify for the Cup of African Nations, come 2014 we won't qualify for the Brazil Fifa World Cup.
You missing the points and stumbling over yourself.
Yes Teko may be the best in SA but is he, or at least showing signs, that he can be a world beater?
Hence the original statement which I support, we are promoting mediocrity.
There is a difference between underachievers and a bad team.
For instance I saw Pirates playing at Ellis Park two weeks ago and I must tell you those kids know how to play, for me Mabalane, Mbuyane (believe this) Thwala are on par with Modise. Opinion of course.
He doesn't carry the whole team. People look to him to win games but he does not carry the team again there is a difference. When you carry the team it means everyone else is useless and making numbers, like I stated above- not Pirates. Incindetally the leading goal scorer for Pirates last year was a defender and we were second based on our defensive record.
Yes there is a lot expected from him. But, that's not the problem. The problem is can he deliver.
Expectations are nothing new England expects a lot from Rooney who is just okay. Argentina Messi. Follow.
Serbia ranked about fifty places higher beats a team ranked in the 70's, 3 - 1.
Serbia is clinical. We are not.
Serbia plays a nearly second string team and stilll makes substitutes that kill us. We play a full team and crumble after our substitutions.
Yep, that sounds like the difference between being ranked 13 and 73.
Do follow my drift?
I'll call a truce on the next point. You say think about the future. I say this is the best we got and the best of our abilities. Let's move on.
You're optimistic- it's fine. But at the end of the day stats and achievements speak for themselves.
Remember this when you build you build up and Bafana has been regressing since '96.
