They say when you continue to do the same thing, you will continue to get the same results. In other words, if you do what you've always done, you will get what you've always got. A lot has been said about our development and identity or lack thereof, but have we done anything worthwhile to try and change the status quo? We have to outgrow the excitement of qualifying for major tournaments now and start adding value, not just numbers, by playing to win. Enough about playing by virtue of being hosts, let's qualify and go there to win and not just to be counted among the teams that took part in the tournament.
In tournaments held at home, be it Afcon or the 2010 FIFA World Cup – notwithstanding the poor record of being the only host never to progress past the group stages – we have proved to be able to stand our ground. Can the same be said about our away performances? No! Have we done anything about it? No! We have this tendency to claim to have a similar football identity to that of Brazil. While it can be argued that, on paper, the two nations are gifted in skill and flair, they remain worlds apart for a reason! If Brazilians are struggling with away games, what do they do? They play more away games, even at junior level, so that they can get to the bottom of the away games' problem. That's to ensure the uniformity from the junior to the senior national teams. It also helps to equip players from a young age to be able to deal with the pressure that comes with playing away from home and that helps them at both club and national team level.
Because they have a conscious decision to work on an away game problem, they address it and come with good results before moving on to the next one. That means they focus on preparation and attention to detail rather than going out there hoping to make a mark. You wonder why they've been consistent at producing top quality footballers who are adored the world over! They produce players that can hold their own and shine as both a collective and individuals even in the toughest leagues. When you look at their history, despite poor backgrounds, you notice that it all started at junior level. Look at Neymar, as an example, and the impact he's had everywhere he went and you start thinking of Ronaldinho, Kaka, Ronaldo, Cafu and many others. The uniformity I was talking about can also be seen in the national team fullbacks – Marcelo and Dani Alves give you what you'd expect from Roberto Carlos. Dunga, Maicon and now Danilo are all different personalities but have the same profile in the Brazil national team. That means they have their own unique philosophy and are not just operating haphazardly. Can anyone steal Brazil's philosophy? Absolutely not!
A number of coaches, clubs and even administrators have been to Brazil and even spent time being exposed to the ins and outs of Brazilian football but, to this day, not a single one of them has been able to steal that philosophy because it has been tailor-made for that country's footballers. It is their blueprint and where is ours? No foreign coach can come and change their players or even try to inculcate a new philosophy that will be in contradiction with the national team's and get away with it. Here at home, you get a number of different philosophies that continue to stifle and even destroy our players and football identity without any noise made about it. The Brazilians, on the other hand, preserve their philosophy and identity with everything they have. They are so selfish, passionate and protective of their philosophy that they wouldn't even allow anyone to meddle with it. That's what needs to happen with us if we are to compare ourselves to the Brazilians because loving their football and comparing ours with it are two different things. To do that, we need to know our football identity and ensure that we work on it. Where is our blueprint? What is it? What is South African football's identity? Why are we not protecting or embracing it? When we send our former players on coaching courses, how much of that syllabus is on South African football's identity?
That's why more professional and ambitious football clubs and associations empower their technical staff. That's why you find multiple scouts, performance analysts, sport scientists, among other important members of the technical team, because these people all have a very important role to play in preserving the identity and philosophy of either the club or the association. The head coach can't do it alone and it takes more than just a head coach and two assistants, at most, to do all of that. You also can't expect the senior national team coaches to be running up and down across the country, monitoring and scouting for players. They have to have a strong team around them to help with such activities. Yes, the coach will obviously have a final say, after watching the player closely, but the coach shouldn't be the one doing the groundwork. It is only people who are serious about their blueprint that will understand the importance of identity from grassroots level. You can't protect what you don't have or aren't even aware of, so until those who are in charge understand and see the value of these important components of our game, sadly things will remain the same. You will have a coach who is a team bus driver, doubles up as an undercover agent, a scout, a physiotherapist and an opposition analyst while the foundation of the club or association is crumbling.
One hopes the COVID-19 pandemic would've given us a chance to introspect and work towards taking our game to the next level. This thing of local coaches, for example, not getting enough support from the authorities, who continue to bend over backwards to provide red carpet treatment to coaches who know little to nothing about our football and its identity, has to stop. We need to protect what we have so that not every Tom, Dick and Harry comes here, destroys our game and rubbishes everything we have.
VeeJay
