Bafana count cost of failure
Bafana Bafana captain Aaron Mokoena admitted on Monday that his side simply did not have the fight when it came to the crunch in qualifying for World Cup 2006.
South Africa's bid to get to Germany failed on the weekend when they were thrashed 3-1 by Burkina Faso and Ghana beat Uganda. Bafana were simply out-fought by the Burkinabe, something that has been systematic of their qualifying campaign, and Mokoena could not hide his devastation.
"It's the disappointment of our lives," he said from Bremen, where Bafana are preparing for Wednesday evening's friendly against Germany.
"We could have done better, we know that. We wanted to win, but maybe we didn't give it everything we have, we really didn't want the win (on Saturday) more than Burkina Faso. When it came to the battle, we were second best.
"The away games have all been difficult for us (Bafana lost three out of five on the road), you can come up with as many excuses as you like, but I'm not going to get into that."
Mokoena refused to point fingers at individuals, however, and certainly not coach Stuart Baxter.
"When we lose, we lose as a team," he said.
"I have no comment on the coach, this is a team sport, the coach's influence can only be 20 or 30 percent. 70 or 80 percent has to come from the players."
Further embarrassment could still come for Bafana, of course. If they fail to get a point from their final qualifier against the Democratic Republic of Congo next month, and Burkina Faso beat Uganda, Stuart Baxter's men will not be going to the African Nations Cup in Egypt either.
"We have to come up with a good performance with the last game and get the three points," said Mokoena simply.
And picking up some form of decent result against Germany tomorrow could only help to boost flagging morale. Germany are, after all, not exactly walking on air themselves after losing
2-0 to Slovakia at the weekend.
"This game gives the boys a chance to show how strong they are mentally. It's up to us whether we go into this game with the memory of Saturday or we let that memory go. This is a chance for us to show what we are good at," said Mokoena Baxter, however, may also relieve some of the nightmares from Ouagadougou by resting many of the players involved.
Nasief Morris and Steven Pienaar's injuries could rule them out, while Baxter may also be tempted to give a start to Lungisani Ndlela and Lerato Chabangu and rest the increasingly unimpressive strikeforce of Benni McCarthy and Shaun Bartlett.
Delron Buckley, meanwhile, injured for the Burkina game, also trained on Monday, and will probably play in the absence of Siyabonga Nomvete, who was allowed to fly home to Durban.