Bafana Bafana legend Doctor Khumalo has dismissed claims that they underachieved in their first ever FIFA World Cup in 1998 but rather not being able to overcome circumstances in camp.
Bafana were eliminated from the group stage after losing 3-0 to the hosts and drawing 1-1 with Denmark and 2-2 with Saudi Arabia.
South Africa went on to qualify for the next global show piece in Korea and Japan in 2002, missed out on the 2006 event in Germany however featured in the historic first African World Cup in 2010 as hosts.
The France outing was viewed as a disaster by most people with French-born coach Phillip Troussier perceived the villain with his selections and for notably sending Brendan Augustine and Naughty Mokoena home for allegedly breaking a team curfew.
Speaking on the DNA Podcast, ‘Mdokies’, who was part of that team, said he felt Bafana were affected by things that were happening internally, led by the coach.
“To be honest and precise I don’t think we underachieved,” said Khumalo.
“It was just circumstances that made us look like we underachieved because mentally we were not 100% okay. We were disappointed. We were so sad thinking about what had transpired in our country, what happened years back before we could even find ourselves in France.
“And here is an individual he comes to the squad with the effort of the South Africans that supported this squad to be in France, with the effort of the government that made sure that we test our skills against the best of the world, with the effort of those who died for liberation for this country to achieve democracy. And you go there and you get a negative response from somebody that’s supposed to be a leader [the coach].
“It really dampened the spirit of the squad. Why would a situation that is very not profound make the boys to pick up their game and also the mental factor started kicking in, in terms of who are we, what are we here for. To say let’s do this for ourselves after a situation that happened before we played against Saudi Arabia.
“With Denmark, we were given time to be back to the hotel and we took two extra hours and we just saw men in black coming to get us out of the lounge we were at which was three, four-minute walk from the hotel. And here’s a coach who said “South African player, no football player, this is Michael Jackson’ because we went to the lounge. When we drew with Denmark, he said it meant that we wanted to have fun first before playing well.
“He let us go out again and we came back late again and it wasn’t deliberate on our side. When we played against Saudi, we needed a win to qualify for the group stage then we drew 2-2 with Saudi.
“The sad thing was we were playing these games and two of our teammates were already expelled from the squad. It wasn’t right. We got this news early in the morning before going for a session. That also killed our spirit.”
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