Football - WORLD FOOTBALL

Pretoria – 2010 Fifa World Cup™ hosts Bafana Bafana got their 2010 African Nations Cup qualifying campaign back on track with a stunning 4-1 win over Equatorial Guinea in their second Group Four match played at Atteridgeville's Super Stadium on Saturday.
Bafana led 2-0 at halftime.
The worse person on the field was Senegal referee Samba Abdou Diouf. His handling of the match was shocking and he compounded a poor display when he awarded Equatorial Guinea a penalty which substitute Juvenal scored in the 77th minute.
The out of sorts referee, who would have been out of place officiating a Sunday school match, adjudged that Bafana keeper Itumeleng Khune brought down another substitute Pablo Armando inside the danger zone.
Had it been a foul then Khune should have been either booked or red carded.
But the ref did nothing but award a soft penalty.
It is a pity referees cannot get red cards because if ever a ref deserved to be sent off this one did. But the penalty decision was evened out by another poor one when Equatorial Guinea striker Eputie Dyowe had a goal which looked good disallowed in injury time The result was never in any doubt after Kagisho Dikgacoi thudded home a 25 metre rocket that took a deflection and bulged the net in the 10th minute.
Bafana were never troubled by their outclassed opponents. The result will have done wonders to boost self belief in the squad with two qualifiers remaining in June.
The only surprise was that Equatorial Guinea are ranked 73rd in the world just five places below Bafana. They were poor and offered little resistance against a Bafana side that was determined to redeem themselves and get their home qualifying campaign off to winning start.
It was new Bafana coach Joel Santana's first win in charge. He lost his first game against Nigeria 2-0 in Abuja last Sunday.
Bafana showed a 100 per cent improvement over the poor display against Nigeria where the South Africans looked overawed against the star studded Super Eagles.
Equatorial Guinea had no discernible game plan and keeper Emmanuel Danilo who failed to hold crosses, looked out of place at this level of international soccer.
He had a shocker, but he was unlikely to have stopped any of the goals as they were all superb.
In fact so in control were Bafana that Khune had only one half hearted save to deal with in the first 45 minutes and even less to do after the break.
Danilo made a meal of Steven Pienaar's fourth minute shot when he flapped at the ball and somehow managed to clear the danger.
Orlando Pirates midfield mastermind Teko Modise, who was named Man of the Match, had a storming first half. In the sixth minute he showed why he was so badly missed when a toe injury forced him to stay at home last Sunday, when he dribbled the ball from his own half and just failed to find his midfield linkman Steven Pienaar with his final pass.
But Bafana sensed blood and kept their opponents under pressure. It came as no surprise when the home side took the lead six minutes later.
Then Modise set up the first goal when he slipped the ball to defensive midfielder Dikgacoi who rammed home a stunning shot that, even allowing for a deflection that had Danilo beaten hands down, had the 8 000 crowd on their feet.
Defender Laurence Doe was forced to turn Bryce Moon's cross for a corner after 20 minutes.
Bafana suffered a setback in the 22nd minute when central defender Bevan Fransman was concussed and was forced to leave the field. He was taken to hospital as a precaution and the match held up for three minutes. The Moroka Swallows defender was replaced by SuperSport United Bongani Khumalo.
Both Modise and Pienaar peppered the Equatorial Guinea goal with shots that went wide in the 26 and 27th minutes respectively.
The pressure paid off when Surprise Moriri headed home a Modise cross to make it 2-0 and take the game from their opponents.
Moriri was unlucky not to score a second when his 37th minute header shaved the crossbar.
Israel based striker Terror Fanteni put the icing on top of a great all round display with a brilliant goal in the 63rd minute when he showed great courage in going for a Tsepo Masilela cross and rammed home goal number three.
It was Fanteni's first goal in 14 appearances for his country. But he has been used mainly as a substitute and showed on Saturday that he has the hunger and determination to take over the centre forward's role from bad boy Benni McCarthy who opted not to honour his call up for Bafana "for personal" reasons.
The win showed that McCarthy should stay at home and sort out his problems, Moriri and Fanteni showed that given a fair chance they can fill McCarthy's overrated boots.
Dikgacoi capped his best performance for Bafana when he headed home his second goal to make it 4-1deep into injury time.
Coach, Joel Natalino Santana says the win is important for the country.
"We must celebrate this win because we played well. We changed the game plan from the one we used in Nigeria. The win is good for Santana and the technical team, good for the players and good for the supporters. I'm however worried about the injuries that forced Bevan Fransman and captain Aaron Mokoena to be substituted, but I hope that when we return to camp on Monday, we will have good news from the doctor because I need every player going forward to the rest of the qualifiers."