South Africa celebrate African Nations qualification...but fail to qualify!!

[Football supporter]

Yahoo Sports

A little more than a year after hosting a successful World Cup, South Africa woke up with a giant hangover after a failure to understand the rules saw them miss out on qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Coach Pitso Mosimane admitted he had changed tactics and played for a draw in Saturday's final qualifier at home to Sierra Leone, thinking it was enough to win the group and qualify for the 2012 finals.

However, South Africa actually needed a win to avoid being eliminated on head-to-head results between the three teams tied at the top of the table, but no one appeared to have studied the regulations correctly.

Despite playing out the draw, they were pipped by outsiders Niger, who qualified for the first time.

More embarrassingly, the Bafana Bafana celebrated their supposed qualification at the end of the scoreless stalemate in Nelspruit (pictured), thinking they had done enough to advance to next year's finals co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

"It's very sad for South Africa because the country deserves to be in next year's Nations Cup. I feel like I have failed," Mosimane told reporters.

The coach, who took over after the World Cup, was under the impression that goal difference was the determining factor to decide the group winners and when he was told that leaders Niger were losing in Egypt, he changed tactics and settle for a draw.

Niger had led South Africa by a point going into the final round of qualifiers on Saturday.

"Do you think I would have left (striker Lehlohonolo) Majoro on the bench and put on a midfielder if I knew that we needed a goal? It doesn't make sense," Mosimane said, before criticising the regulations.

"Africa is a jungle, my friend," Mosimane added. "The European and South American formats are so much better because everything is running smoothly, but it's very difficult to play in Africa".

However, Mosimane was not the only one to fall foul of a misreading of the rules.

The state-run African Broadcasting Corporation proclaimed qualification and the South African Football Association president Kirsten Nematandani even went on television to congratulate the team.

[asylumseeker]

Sadly, the mastery and interpretation of the rules should not be left to the coach.

Nigeria and Ghana also failed to qualify. African qualifying is tough and generational talent shifts. Congrats to Libya in this year of immense upheaval ... they obviously have talent because at times they played solely with regional players depending on the location of the conflict on the ground.

Mali, Guinea, Zambia and Angola made it too. A while back I read a piece discussing the fact that Seydou Keita hadn't played under Giresse for a period ... big baller or not. And, of course, Kanoute called it quits.

Poor Bafana Bafana ... join the club of early celebration.

[Bitter]

Sadly, the mastery and interpretation of the rules should not be left to the coach.

 

Everyone should know the rules and understand them. The coach needs to be fired. He can't blame format. 

[Touches]

He look for dat...play to Win.

[asylumseeker]

Sadly, the mastery and interpretation of the rules should not be left to the coach.

 

Everyone should know the rules and understand them. The coach needs to be fired. He can't blame format. 

I'm not giving the coach a pass; however, I am stating that there should have been a check and balance in the set-up to offset errant decision-making. Rules vary from tournament to tournament and competition to competition. It isn't difficult to find yourself in a compromising position versus the rules. The coach made a mistake and this ultimately rests on his shoulders ... but anyone who has had assistant coaches and other management personnel in the mix knows that their mastery of the rules is also critical to applying sound decisions.

[ribbit]

What kind of sports journalism dey have in SA? Dey have journalist covering de team that doh know de tiebreak scenarios or not informing de fans? Awful.

[Dinner Mints]

He look for dat...play to Win.

Yep. Not sorry.

[Midknight]

What kind of sports journalism dey have in SA? Dey have journalist covering de team that doh know de tiebreak scenarios or not informing de fans? Awful.

Ent we had T&T journalists and Sean Fuentes telling us we were top of the group after two games despite Guyana having an overall better goal difference than us?

This is not the first time this happened, and while the coach is ultimately to blame, asylumseeker has a point. Somebody (NOT THE COACH) should be assigned to go through the competition rules at the start of the tournament, even if is just for the record. These regional competitions, particularly outside of europe are notorious for changing rules from edition to edition. Anybody remember the Caribbean cup game where one side (think it was Barbados) was desperately trying to score on themselves to get a tie, because according to the rules they would have got through with that, but not with a win???

Must say having all of Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana not qualifying is a surprise. If Cameroon/Ivory Coast doh take it this rounds they will never forgive themselves

[FF]

What kind of sports journalism dey have in SA? Dey have journalist covering de team that doh know de tiebreak scenarios or not informing de fans? Awful.

Ent we had T&T journalists and Sean Fuentes telling us we were top of the group after two games despite Guyana having an overall better goal difference than us?

This is not the first time this happened, and while the coach is ultimately to blame, asylumseeker has a point. Somebody (NOT THE COACH) should be assigned to go through the competition rules at the start of the tournament, even if is just for the record. These regional competitions, particularly outside of europe are notorious for changing rules from edition to edition. Anybody remember the Caribbean cup game where one side (think it was Barbados) was desperately trying to score on themselves to get a tie, because according to the rules they would have got through with that, but not with a win???

Must say having all of Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana not qualifying is a surprise. If Cameroon/Ivory Coast doh take it this rounds they will never forgive themselves

Cameroon out too... Egypt also...

Ghana is who make it... yuh musbe just get tie up in yuh post

[asylumseeker]

Mentioning Ghana as excluded was my error. I think, in part, Midknight relied on my comments. It would probably be helpful if someone could post a complete list of the countries that qualified.

At the time of posting, I relied on a prior cursory scan of preliminary reports regarding the many nations that are not usually included in any serious discussion as candidates for a Nations Cup, but who made it at the expense of the standard giants. There's no doubt this augurs well for the global game.

[FF]

Teams who have qualified for the African Nations Cup (+2 more):
Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso*, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Zambia, Angola, Tunisia, Mali, Niger, Libya (best runner-up).

* Facing possible legal action over the alleged use of an unqualified player vs Namibia which could see them thrown out of the tournament.

[doc]

Morocco and Sudan qualified yesterday ah think

[de_redman]

"It's very sad for South Africa because the country deserves to be in next year's Nations Cup. I feel like I have failed," Mosimane told reporters.

Yuh think?! 

[ribbit]

What kind of sports journalism dey have in SA? Dey have journalist covering de team that doh know de tiebreak scenarios or not informing de fans? Awful.

Ent we had TnullT journalists and Sean Fuentes telling us we were top of the group after two games despite Guyana having an overall better goal difference than us?

This is not the first time this happened, and while the coach is ultimately to blame, asylumseeker has a point. Somebody (NOT THE COACH) should be assigned to go through the competition rules at the start of the tournament, even if is just for the record. These regional competitions, particularly outside of europe are notorious for changing rules from edition to edition. Anybody remember the Caribbean cup game where one side (think it was Barbados) was desperately trying to score on themselves to get a tie, because according to the rules they would have got through with that, but not with a win???

Must say having all of Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana not qualifying is a surprise. If Cameroon/Ivory Coast doh take it this rounds they will never forgive themselves

Ah skeptical about dis. Yuh saying dey have tourney rules where a tie better than a win. Do you have a reference?

[FF]

Ah skeptical about dis. Yuh saying dey have tourney rules where a tie better than a win. Do you have a reference?

Not exactly... but that really happen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Caribbean_Cup#Anomaly
Anomaly

There was an unusual match between Barbados and Grenada.

Grenada went into the match with a superior goal difference, meaning that Barbados needed to win by two goals to progress to the finals. The trouble was caused by two things. First, unlike most group stages in football competitions, the organizers had deemed that all games must have a winner. All games drawn over 90 minutes would go to sudden death extra time. Secondly and most importantly, there was an unusual rule which stated that in the event of a game going to sudden death extra time the goal would count double, meaning that the winner would be awarded a two goal victory.

Barbados was leading 2-0 until the 83rd minute, when Grenada scored, making it 2-1. Approaching the dying moments, the Barbadians realized they had little chance of scoring past Grenada's mass defense in the time available, so they deliberately scored an own goal to tie the game at 2-2. This would send the game into extra time and give them another half hour to break down the defense. The Grenadians realized what was happening and attempted to score an own goal as well, which would put Barbados back in front by one goal and would eliminate Barbados from the competition.

However, the Barbados players started defending their opposition's goal to prevent them from doing this, and during the game's last five minutes, the fans were treated to the incredible sight of Grenada trying to score in either goal. Barbados also defended both ends of the pitch, and held off Grenada for the final five minutes, sending the game into extra time. In extra time, Barbados notched the game-winner, and, according to the rules, was awarded a 4-2 victory, which put them through to the next round.

And look video proof...
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ThpYsN-4p7w" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/ThpYsN-4p7w</a>

[asylumseeker]

 ... at once both a moment of Caribbean ingenuity and CFU f**kery. Coachman in South Africa woulda had ah headache keeping up.