Bafana Seeks To Improve Record Against European Opposition

Bafana Bafana, who are preparing to face Poland in Warsaw
today, have a record against European opposition that leaves a lot to be
desired.

South Africa have won just nine of their 39 previous matches
against teams from the continent and only one of those came against a power of
the European game – a French side in disarray at the 2010 World Cup.

Other successes have come against Malta, Denmark, Sweden,
Scotland, Turkey, Slovenia, Norway and Poland.

The victory over the Poles came on home soil in the lead-up
to the 2009 Confederations Cup when Terror Fanteni scored on six minutes, which
proved enough for the win.

Bafana will hope to draw some confidence from that game
today, though only three of the Polish side that played that day remain in the
squad: left-back Marcin Komorowski, and forwards Marek Saganowski and Robert
Lewandowski.

South Africa’s first victory over European opposition was
against Sweden in 1999, when Siyabonga Nomvete scored late on for a 1-0 win.

Their only victory in Europe was against lowly Malta the
following year, with Thabo Mngomeni on the scoresheet against the tiny island
nation, which has a population roughly the same as Benoni’s.

The biggest victories against nations from the continent
came within three days of each other, as Bafana beat Scotland and Turkey, both
by a 2-0 margin, in the Hong Kong Reunification Cup ahead of the 2002 World
Cup.

But largely it has been a tale of disappointment, though
Bafana have never been humiliated by European opposition, as they have been
against the likes of Nigeria and Mexico in the past.

A 4-2 loss in Germany was tough to take but many better
sides have fared worse in that country, while there were also 3-0 defeats
against France in the opening game of the 1998 World Cup, Germany in 1997 and
in Sweden in 2001.

Their two heaviest defeats came in matches when they might
have been expected to do much better. They lost 4-1 in Georgia under Jomo Sono
in 2002 and went down by the same scoreline in Iceland under Stuart Baxter in
2005.

Their biggest home defeat against European opposition was a
3-1 loss to Serbia in August 2009, one of the last games in charge for
Brazilian coach Joel Santana.

Bafana’s 39 games have yielded 32 goals for and 60 against,
though out of the 21 European nations they have faced so far, they have failed
to score against just three of those – Italy (two games), Netherlands and
Portugal.