While Bafana Bafana starlet Relebohile Mofokeng maturely admitted to a costly miss against Cameroon, his legion of protective fans — and even some former pros — have chosen to blame coach Hugo Broos instead. Oh, the pleasure of being a crowd favourite! Such is the nature of football that when a player is loved by most he just cannot do any wrong, can he?
Take Relebohile Mofokeng for example. The Orlando Pirates youngster has come on to the local football scene like a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stuffy environment. Such has been his impact on the domestic game that he is loved even by the fans of rival teams, Pirates’ arch-enemies Kaizer Chiefs included.
And with good reason, too; for not in a very long time has someone so young captivated us as the youngster from the Vaal has. Understandable then that there was a huge clamour for his inclusion in the country’s senior national team, Bafana Bafana. When coach Hugo Broos obliged and called “the president of ama2000”, only to use him sparingly as just about every experienced coach would to ensure the youngster is blooded properly, his fan base cried that he should be in the starting eleven.
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Now, Broos is too wily and experienced a coach to pander to the supporters’ whims like that. Still, the silver-haired Belgian included the youngster in his final squad for the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco despite Mofokeng having recently gone off the boil a bit. Broos, having ensured that Bafana qualified for the knockout stage of the continental showpiece, then gave Mofokeng his start in the Round of 16 clash against Cameroon.
Surely that was a massive vote of confidence in the youngster, right? Not so, cried Rele’s fan base. And this was largely because they were doing what fans blinded by their admiration and loyalty are wont to do – protect their own.
That Bafana Bafana were knocked out via a 2-1 defeat by the Indomitable Lions was because of a number of reasons – chief among them Broos’ cautious approach to the match as he started with seven defensive players. The discerning football follower would have, however, realised that Bafana could have rendered the match a no-contest within the initial 20 minutes during which they were dominant and had Cameroon on the back foot. There was a move forward on the right side of the field and Oswin Appollis delivered a long ball to find his Pirates teammate.
Mofokeng did extremely well to control the ball, going in on goal to set himself up for a shot with just the goalkeeper in front of him. But the youngster incredulously sent the ball over the goals, leading to a few of his teammates cupping their heads in disbelief as he himself knelt in the box aware of the glorious chance he’d wasted. To his credit, the youngster acknowledged the miss, admitting he should have done better.
That was pretty mature of him. Not so his fans, among them some revered former players who pointed the finger at Broos, blaming the septuagenarian for “throwing the youngster in at the deep end”. They argued that the coach should have introduced Mofokeng earlier in the tournament, perhaps as a sub, and not in as important a match as the knockout clash against Cameroon.
And these are the same people who had been complaining when Broos was using Mofokeng sparingly. For some of us who’ve covered this game of billions for as long as we have, this was not surprising though. After all, experience has taught us that favoured star players can do little to no wrong in their fans’ eyes. They are immune from criticism.
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