Bafana Bafana were overwhelmed by their status as World Cup hosts in 2010, which resulted in the team failing to get out of the group stages of the competition. | IOLsport
JOHANNESBURG – The euphoria that surrounded the 2010 Fifa World Cup overwhelmed all South Africans, such that MacBeth Sibaya insists that Bafana Bafana would have done better if the tournament was hosted elsewhere.
Sibaya, one of the few players who were part of Bafana’s squad at the World Cups in 2002 and 2010, believes that were they not caught between being footballers and proud citizens a decade ago, they would not have had such an underwhelming outing. FILE - Bafana Bafana midfielder MacBeth Sibaya skips past French forward Thierry Henry during their World Cup game at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein in 2010. Photo: Peter Steffen/EPA
“There was a very big gap between Germany and Korea/Japan. There was an eight-year gap between Korea/Japan and 2010. A huge gap. We didn’t participate in big competitions, and as a country we struggled in the Nations Cup and so forth.” However, since the days of players like Sibaya, there’s been an alarming trend of South African players who secure moves abroad but fail to cut the mustard - where two seasons later they take the next flight out and return to the PSL.
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