Pearl Nicodemus
It seems as though the talking point in the Bafana squad is the exclusion of striker, Benni McCarthy. Some are for it and there are those who say his experience is needed in South Africa’s football side. Despite what people’s feelings may be many expected coach, Alberto Parreira, to include the veteran player in his final selection.
Almost but not quite
The coach waited until the deadline date of the 1st of June to
announce his world cup team. This is after some teams had arrived in South Africa for the 2010 showpiece. There was much speculation about Benni as he had not played during the last few games Bafana played. He didn’t even feature the day before final team was selected. The team beat Columbia 5-0 without the legendary McCarthy. Through all this there were still people who expected to see him in the eighteen area during this year’s world cup.
Now let’s go back a bit in history before deciding whether we need Benni McCarthy in the final 23 or not.
Remember that McCarthy became infamous after he refused to play for the national team while he was still playing for Blakburn Rovers in England. He spoke openly, boldly and arrogantly to the media about his reasons for his refusal. He even said he did not feel obliged to represent his national team during the Confederations Cup and the World Cup. McCarthy’s behaviour caused quite a stir in the hearts of soccer loving South Africans.
There were times when McCarthy would even get the other boys to protest and demand better pay just before major games. He has admitted to this too. At one point he did not go to a Bafana Bafana training camp saying he could not find anyone to look after his daughter as she is not familiar with his family in Cape Town.
Now I guess it’s payback time. It is often said that “karma is a b***h”. Maybe he should have put his ego aside and played his part. After all national pride is what we South Africans have a lot of.
After countless meetings and squabbles with SAFA, he had finally committed himself to Bafana Bafana. It seems it was a little too late.
Recently his fitness levels also came under the spotlight. Benni McCarthy was struggling to play full games and he was extremely overweight. He did say that he worked hard on that and weight was no longer his problem.
Looking at twitter it seems as if people support the decision made by the coach.
Here are just some of those twitter comments:
“Benni should have taken Cele's advice; stomach in, chest out!”
“But in honest truth he did seem unfit. It is an honest decision, really.”
“Let's all donate money as a nation to buy Benni McCarthy a happy meal. He is sad.”
“When Benni was on TKZee song saying 'hey lekker lekker fish &chips',he was letting us know about his love for food, now we see it bad timing.”
“Hope Benni McDonalds is not an emotional eater.”
There are those who support him
“No Benni McCarthy in SA WC squad. what?”
“Benni should be in the squad f**k what you thought.”
“SA World Cup Team announced. Despite his fitness I would have still put my money on Benni than Nomvete.”
We often hear that the early bird catches the worm and that proved to be true on Wednesday when the world cup trophy arrived at the Tshwane University of Technology’s Soshanguve campus. We woke up early just so we could be there before eight in the morning. This was on a day when we didn’t have any classes. And thank goodness we did because we got to experience what those who came late didn’t and most never will.
