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For the longest time, a Kaizer Chiefs or Bafana squad without goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune often created panic among fans. Daniel Mothowagae looks for the reasons.
With the make-or-break Afcon qualifier against Libya looming large, the question has popped up again of whether there is a goalie capable of putting on the gloves for the senior national team.
A thorough observation across the Absa Premiership shows that more than half of the teams prefer foreign talent in goal.
Only six local goalkeepers are regulars at their clubs in the premier division and only a handful are backups.
Experts warned that these imbalances would affect South Africa as it struggles to produce a truly world-class keeper in the mould of Itumeleng Khune.
The 30-year-old’s season was ended by a shoulder injury, which subsequently required surgery.
Former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper coach Farouk Abrahams said a succession plan was key.
“While you have the talent, work on the next talent,” he advised.
He recalled how the senior national team used to have enough depth with the likes of Rowen Fernandez, Moeneeb Josephs, Emile Baron, Wayne Roberts, Brian Baloyi and Calvin Marlin – to name but a few – all coming through the ranks to wrestle for the position once hogged by Andre Arendse.
“Everyone, irrespective of where they come from, has the right to a job, but we need to create opportunities for our local keepers,” said Abrahams.
“We need more specialised keeper academies to have a succession plan in place. However, every time there is a Safa [goalkeeping coaching] course, it is happening in Johannesburg.”
The 64-year-old established the Farouk Abrahams Goalkeeper and Life Skills Academy in 1998.
Despite a lack of sponsorship, the Cape Town-based academy is still producing goalies, some of whom are plying their trade in the ABC Motsepe League and the NFD.
Abrahams’ institution has also provided keepers for the national women’s teams – the Under-17, Under-20 and Banyana Banyana.
The former Cape Town Spurs keeper noted that it was worrying that everyone had become so overreliant on Khune for club and country.
“It shows a lack of depth,” said Abrahams, who was the Bafana keeper coach at the 2002 World Cup.
National head coach Stuart Baxter currently has Bidvest Wits No 1 Darren Keet and SuperSport United’s regular Ronwen Williams as his options for the Libya game. After all, the two have played the most games – more than any other goalminder in the premier division so far this season.
An added advantage is that the pair have also been part of Bafana’s Afcon qualifying campaign lately. Keet, who was recently linked with a possible move to Kaizer Chiefs, has played in all of Wits’ league games except the Nedbank Cup Last 32 fixture, where his deputy Ricardo Goss was handed a run in the Clever Boys’ 4-0 win over amateur side Boyne Tigers last month.
Williams has played every minute of SuperSport’s 25 matches across all competitions.
In all likelihood, Baxter will be inclined to go with Keet, who is more experienced than Williams.
Keet has nine caps and three clean sheets, but, like Williams, he has suffered his fair share of misfortune in the Bafana jersey, also conceding 10 goals.
Williams has six caps and half of the goals he shipped in were in one game – in Brazil’s 5-0 demolition of South Africa in 2014.
His last appearance in Bafana colours was in the recent Nelson Mandela Challenge against Paraguay in November, where he and Keet were handed a run in each half of the 1-1 draw.
Should Bafana qualify for the Afcon tournament in Egypt, it remains to be seen whether Baxter will have enough depth for any eventualities.
Two years ago, he fielded Khune with a face mask when Bafana needed to beat Senegal in South Africa’s futile bid to qualify for last year’s World Cup in Russia.
At the time, Baxter had Wayne Sandilands and Williams available.
At the 2015 Afcon finals in Equatorial Guinea, then coach Shakes Mashaba used all three keepers – Keet, Jackson Mabokgwane and Brilliant Khuzwayo – during the group stage.
Abrahams says the thought of stepping into “Khune’s shoes” weighs heavily on anyone who comes in after the rated keeper.
“No matter how good one can be at club level, the reality is that not everyone can make a set-up at international level. With Khune injured, they [Bafana’s technical team] must now decide who is going to be the No 1 because the position is too delicate to just drop a goalkeeper even after one mistake.”
“The goalkeeping position is a really sensitive issue.
Your No 1 being out is a massive blow. With the experience Itumeleng Khune has, the influence he has on the players ... it is a massive blow.
Darren [Keet] and Ronwen [Williams] have been fighting it out for the No 2 shirt.
It will be natural for one of them to secure it, whoever is better between now and the game, or the one that we think is mentally better to carry the burden of that.
It’s a difficult one for keepers going after Itu. Who goes in after a big player?
You can do okay, but did you do as well as Itu? It’s a difficult one. That heightens the pressure on whoever is going in.
I want a goalkeeper who is confident and will do the job. I don’t want someone going in thinking ‘this is a big test for me’, but someone who will say ‘wow, what an opportunity I’ve got here’.
Itu is out at the moment and we haven’t got a date [for his return]. The No 2 is going in to stake a claim. So confidence is one aspect, mental strength [is the other].
And where do you find the third choice [goalkeeper]?
The ones who have been playing for us and have the experience are not active [at club level]. Do you go and give it to one of the younger ones who have been in the system?
I don’t want to be experimenting, but I do need a third choice keeper to put his hand up.
It is going to be a tough call.”
Chiefs have gone against their tradition of moulding home-grown keepers in recent years.
Their desperate hunt for Khune’s replacement culminated in the signing of Nigerian international Daniel Akpeyi last week.
This happened after Amakhosi coach Ernst Middendorp had hinted that he was on course to throw Bruce Bvuma (23) into the deep end to replace the erratic Virgil Vries in the starting line-up.
The German went as far as suggesting that the club would not delve into the transfer market to cover for Khune.
Akpeyi’s departure has paved the way for former AmaZulu goalie Mbongeni Mzimela (33), who made his debut for Chippa United last weekend to boost the number of locals with regular action.
Only a few clubs, including Wits and Orlando Pirates, have an all-South African line-up on their goalie roster.
The Bucs duo of Siyabonga Mpontshane and Jackson Mabokgwane have played almost an equal share of games so far this season, while Khuzwayo and Sandilands await their turn.
Sandilands returned to the starting team against Esperance of Tunisia having last kept goal for Pirates in their opening league game against Highlands Park in August.
Khuzwayo and Mpontshane were handed their Bafana call ups by Mashaba in 2014, following the passing on of then Number 1 and captain Senzo Meyiwa.
At other clubs like Mamelodi Sundowns, it is almost impossible for a local keeper to get the gloves ahead of the vastly experienced foreign duo of Denis Onyango (Uganda) and Kennedy Mweene (Zambia).
It was only during the absence of Onyago due to injury that Reyaad Pieterse earned his four appearances this campaign.
Elsewhere, Cameroonian Patrick Tignyemb has also made it difficult for his competitors at Bloemfontein Celtic where he has limited his reserve Kabelo Dambe of Botswana to just three games.
Similarly, Free State Stars have foreign-born minders competing for the No 1 jersey - Badra Ali Sangaré of Ivory Coast and Olivier Kwizera of Rwanda.
At Highlands Park, Tapuwa Kapini has limited his understudy Marlon Heugh (28) to just five appearances.
Richard Ofori has not only helped his country Ghana to Afcon qualification, but the Maritzburg United keeper has played 90 minutes in all of the KwaZulu-Natal side’s league games.
He only missed out in the Nedbank Cup and Telkom Knockout where Bongani Mpandle (26) was given a run for his three appearances.
At Polokwane City, George Chigova has just reclaimed the number one spot from Harold Ndlovu.
