Anger and expletives: Bafana’s AFCON loss against Egypt that hit close to home

I shouted expletives! I kicked at thin air! I cajoled! I flailed arms and clapped hands – not in applause but in anger and frustration. That was very unlike me.

I watch football matches calmly. It is a trait I’ve developed over nearly three decades of covering the beautiful game. Of course, there have been moments when the fan in me has come out. But even then, it was controlled – at least far better than it was for this one.

On Friday evening, I essentially lived every moment of Bafana Bafana’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) second group match against Egypt. I was pleasantly surprised by the full extent to which I was invested in the match as a patriot. Such has been the turnaround in fortunes for Bafana in recent years that the neutrality of a journalist simply did not apply – not in this tie against an old enemy.

It ended in defeat, of course – the first time Bafana had been beaten since that 2-0 loss to Rwanda way back in November 2023 on that pathetically wet synthetic pitch in Kigali. The 1-0 loss to a dubious Mohamed Salah first-half penalty in a packed stadium in Agadir meant Bafana’s unbeaten run of 27 matches came to an end, when they should have extended it to 28.

A significant part of my shouting expletives had to do with the feeling that ‘we wuz robbed’. How the match officials did not award Bafana a penalty for that handball by Yaser late in the match beats me. It was a handball inside the box and it should have been a spot kick. Intriguingly, the Rwandan referee had initially awarded a free kick because he believed it was a handball, albeit he was of the view it occurred outside the box.

This, remember, is the same man who changed his mind and awarded Egypt a penalty for what appeared to be an innocuous touch to the face of Salah by Khuliso Mudau. And then he denies us our own.

Well, that’s how the cookie crumbles, I guess. We have once again lost to the Pharaohs at the AFCON finals – the third time – and we should move on and get a good result against Zimbabwe on Monday to progress to the knockout stage. While beating the Warriors would be great, I suspect a draw would also be enough to see us into the Round of 16.

We shouldn’t, however, be speaking this way. Not when we played the entire second half against Egypt a man to the good after Mohamed Hany was sent off just after Salah’s goal.

Of course, North African teams are renowned for their ability to defend leads. On the previous two occasions they beat us – in 1996 and 1998 – at the finals, Egypt had scored within the first 20 minutes.

I was delighted when we kept them at bay until late in the first half and it looked as though we would go into the break at 0-0. It gave me the vibes of 2019, when we knocked them out in the Round of 16 via a very late Thembinkosi Lorch goal. But that ‘phantom’ penalty did us in.

Then we came back from the break on fire, taking the game to them and using our numerical advantage pretty well. But we were just not efficient in the final third, making some poor passes and decisions that let Egypt off the hook. A good thing I had nothing to throw at the TV, as many passionate football fans do.

I got angry when we cheaply lost the ball and then conceded a free kick, which Egypt took quickly, only for Ronwen Williams to come to our rescue with a double-footed save. I jumped up in frustration when Teboho Mokoena repeatedly opted to shoot from range when passing to teammates in better positions seemed the better option. I flailed my arms in anger as Lyle Foster made poor passes.

I cajoled the boys when they went forward with purpose. But I lost it when they appeared to be taking forever with time fast running out.

And then the referee and his VAR team sent my blood boiling with that ‘No Penalty’ decision late in the match.

I truly surprised myself with the way I watched this match. The patriot in me overwhelmed the journalist in me. Bafana Bafana have truly won South Africans over – and we love them. They had better smash Zimbabwe on Monday.