The Optimistic Santana challenges the odds

Joel Santana is no stranger to scrutiny after accepting the position of South Africa football coach in May last year. Bafana Bafana - currently 73^rd on the FIFA World Ranking – as of June this year have suffered defeat in eight of nine friendly matches including the latest 1-0 defeat on Tuesday to 96^th ranked Iceland. According to citypress.co.za Santana and his team are still optimistic about reaching the 2010 World cup Final.

Santana who is paid R1.4 million monthly is looking as though he does not have the magic needed to transform Bafana into a winning team before the 2010 FIFA World Cup. A recent report on iol.co.za states that The South African Football Association (Safa) president Kristin Nematandani said Santana had until the next two friendly games against Japan and Jamaica in November to pull Bafana right. Santana on the other hand according to sport24.co.za dismissed calls for his head in stating he knows of no national coach who was fired as a result of losing friendly matches.
It seems as Bafana and their Brazilian coach are looking at the glass half full in the build up to the 2010 World Cup despite the fact that SAFA see it as evidently empty. South Africans and media alike need to stop condemning the fate of our team. Bafana Bafana having home ground advantage will undoubtedly put on a performance not to be missed.