I had the good fortune to work with the team for the games against Ghana and Morocco and thoroughly enjoyed my stay with them in Mali.
I would have love to have stayed for South Africa's game against Mali but I had to return to South Africa for Manning Ranger's commitments in the domestic League.
Fortunately, I did have the opportunity to watch the hosts destroy Algeria with a very fine performance.
Having assessed Mali I was impressed with four of their
players:
Midfielders - Keita Seydou and Diarra Mahamadou
Strikers -
Bagayoko Mamadou and Coulibaly Soumaila
What was interesting about their tactics was that they played Keita Seydou on the right side of midfield, even though he is mostly a left-footed player, on the left side.
Mali also had the right mind-set, were passionate and determined to win on the day. The crowd support was exceptional and reminded me of what Bafana Bafana experienced in South Africa in 1996. I was surprised that Mali did not go all the way to the final.
The competition itself did not serve up the quality of football that I had anticipated. However, without offering this as an excuse, the conditions were difficult in many respects.
Congratulations to Cameroon for retaining the Cup!
I think both South Africa and Nigeria have slipped, but perhaps with some different player selections, Carlos Queiroz will no doubt turn this around for the World Cup.
SAFA must be complimented, in every respect, for the support they gave the technical team. The South African players were given every opportunity to deliver the goods and it was them, not Carlos Queiroz who failed to do the job entrusted to the team.
There are far too many players selected to play for Bafana Bafana who are not playing regularly for their foreign clubs. To expect them to automatically come in and dominate the proceedings is unrealistic.
Next time: Carlos Queiroz and Jomo Sono - will this combination be good for South African Football?"