Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has a little under a month to figure out how he’s going to fill the huge Themba Zwane-shaped hole in the national team. No pressure, Hugo.
After Tuesday night’s 1-all Africa Cup of Nations qualification draw against Congo in Brazzaville, South Africans got the worst news possible — Zwane, the team’s heartbeat and attacking lynchpin, is set for a number of months on the sidelines after an injury to his Achilles.
Orlando Pirates’ Patrick Maswanganyi has long been touted as the 35-year-old Zwane’s natural successor, but after coming on as a substitute on Tuesday, he showed that despite his experience, the burden of being the creative force at international level was beyond him.
With Tito given the keys after Zwane’s exit, Bafana Bafana were in sixes and sevens, and were lucky not to be punished by the profligate hosts, who spurned a number of opportunities to take the lead.
On Tuesday, Maswanganyi was not make sure, and he didn’t show that in the colours of the national team, he can be the same player that excites Orlando Pirates fans week in, week out.
Maybe he needs time to learn from the master himself. But for now, he’s just not ready.
So, if not Maswanganyi, then who?
There is one player who has been doing the things for his club that Zwane does both for Bafana and Mamelodi Sundowns.
– An eye to spot an open teammate — check.
– An eye for goal — check.
– The ability to start something out of nothing — check.
– Left foot, right foot, he can do it all.
The player is also good at making others around him look better.
And when he played alongside Zwane last season, they were unstoppable. In fact, they were unstoppable for the last seven years.
And now in the colours of Kaizer Chiefs, he’s showing that he can lift an entire club with his influence, just ask captain Yusuf Maart, who praised his impact since moving to Naturena.
That player is, of course, Gaston Sirino. He was born in Uruguay, but he’s been eligible to play for South Africa for the last year.
Like Zwane, Sirino can play down both flanks, and in the hole behind the striker. His attacking influence was evident in Chiefs’ win over AmaZulu last month, where he scored one and created another.
And while Broos has insisted that picking someone of Sirino’s age is not a forward thinking move, the coach now has to find solutions ahead of the next month’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Uganda and South Sudan.
Sirino may be on the wrong side of 30, but his calming influence and vision could be valuable to Bafana Bafana in Zwane’s absence.
IOL Sport