I bet he’s regretting some of his selections today as he ponders how to beat host nation Senegal on Saturday and take our last chance to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Here are some facts from South Africa’s CAF U-23 African Nations Cup tournament in Senegal:
• South Africa have conceded seven goals in four games
• Three of those goals conceded have been due to individual errors
• Three of those goals conceded have been due to poor marking
• One of those goals conceded has been a long-range shot
With the slow and cumbersome Kwanda Mngonyama at centre-back not being helped very much by full Bafana Bafana international Rivaldo Coetzee beside him, it’s been a shambles in Senegal from day one.
Very little organisation or leadership from the back and no centre-backs named on the bench who Da Gama could trust with replacing those who are off-form, the coach has to take the blame for this clear deficiency in the squad.
Da Gama picked the squad, and he had training camps to assess whether Mngonyama and Coetzee would be a suitable pairing in an international tournament as important as this one.
They clearly are not. There was a moment against Zambia when the striker ran free between the two of them and volleyed home. Coetzee and Mngonyama looked at each other as if to say “That was your man!” … “No, that was your man!”
Each one has no confidence in – or communication with – the other, and it shows.
Da Gama should have noticed this during the Under-23 training camps and friendlies leading up to the tournament. Have you ever seen any backline perform so consistently poorly for so many consecutive games?
Any centre-back pairing can be forgiven for having an off-day, but three or four below-par games in a row, at a big tournament? It’s quite obvious they can’t work together, and it was not helped by the fact that Coetzee was thrown in just before the tournament started to add experience.
I have had high hopes for Coetzee, but this tournament has shown up some of his inherent faults – a lack of pace being one and slow reaction time being another – and I fear he’s gone backwards in the past few months.
Coetzee clearly needs a more experienced, faster defender next to him, and Mngonyama is not experienced nor does he have any semblance of pace. Especially at a ‘youth’ tournament like Under-23s, there are likely to be quick forwards to deal with, and Da Gama should have known this.
Granted, Denwin Farmer’s head injury that ruled him out of the last three matches did not help – he is one of the better defenders we had in the squad and his absence was a big blow, but truth be told he was not too convincing either in the 3-1 defeat to Senegal before he got injured.
As exciting as this Under-23 squad is going forward, and in patches they have looked very good, the defence is a huge concern.
Against Senegal in the opening game, Mngonyama’s lack of pace was exposed as early as 15 minutes in, when he was left for dead and had to concede the penalty that set the tone for a really poor game. Mngonyama struggled all game but – unlike the Senegal coach who substituted their defender who could not contain Phakamani Mahlambi in the first half – Da Gama persisted with Mngonyama and kept him in the team for all the games.
Against Zambia, Mngonyama let the striker run free while Coetzee watched on and allowed the player all the time and space in the world to execute the volley that put us 1-0 down. The second goal conceded was just all-round poor marking from a corner.
Against Tunisia, we generally sat back as we only needed a draw, but we looked so uncomfortable and just kept hoofing the ball up field. The lack of composure on the ball at the back was very frustrating to watch as we just kept giving the ball back to the opposition.
Against Algeria, basic errors cost us. It was either Abbubaker Mobara at right-back or Mngonyama himself who played Oussama Darfalou onside from a very basic punt up field, and Jody February should have stayed on his line and let Mngonyama try to get back and tackle the striker – yet having said that, the fact that the goalkeeper chose to come out indicates that he didn’t trust Mngonyama to get back anyway.
This is without mentioning how much we were tactically outplayed by Algeria ... and I think it’s generally understood already that tactically, our national teams are far behind the rest of Africa, let alone the rest of the world (and seeing the likes of Thabo Senong and Molefi Ntseki on the technical team in Dakar does not exactly fill one with optimism).
Should we qualify for the Olympics, we will need Itumeleng Khune and at least one other senior central defender to make any impression in Rio next year.
The Under-23s may well still qualify by beating Senegal, and I sincerely hope they do … but should they succeed, more important is that Da Gama realises what’s wrong (he hasn't yet) or we’re going nowhere with this team.
Twitter: @KickOffHerman