As much as one is happy about coach Pitso Mosimane’s return to Bafana Bafana and strongly believes the South African Football Association (Safa) made the right decision, selecting two goalkeepers from the same team doesn’t make sense and is unfair to other deserving shot-stoppers. Especially when the other is a benchwarmer.
Mosimane’s 30-man squad, which he announced for the two 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers against Guinea on Saturday and Eritrea on September 30, as well as the high-profile friendly against Egypt on October 4, created both excitement and questions.
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One of those questions is: why would Mosimane select Mamelodi Sundowns’ second-choice goalkeeper, Ricardo Goss, as one of the three goalkeepers alongside Sundowns’ number one, Ronwen Williams, and reigning Betway Premiership Goalkeeper of the Season Sipho Chaine of Orlando Pirates?
Yes, all three goalkeepers were part of the national team setup under former coach Hugo Broos, and Mosimane did say he wouldn’t want to shake up the squad too much because he believes his predecessor did an amazing job of building a solid foundation for Bafana. However, things have changed for the 32-year-old Goss, who is no longer getting regular game time following his return to Sundowns from a loan stint with Siwelele FC.
Since returning to the African champions, Goss has played second fiddle to Williams, making just one appearance in the MTN8 semi-final first leg against Golden Arrows, where Masandawana suffered a 1-0 defeat, their only loss of the season.
Williams, who was Bafana’s number one under Broos, has played all of Sundowns’ other 11 matches this season. When questioned about the decision to select both goalkeepers, Mosimane strangely said it was “not my story to talk about why they are in the same team” and that he “found it like this”.
“Maybe one should be playing on another team, a top team, but it’s not my situation,” Mosimane told the media. “I found it like this. I’m not here to shake the tree for the apples to fall. I want to have a team also to represent the country, so you can ask those questions: why are they all stacked in one place?”
I fully agree with the coach that he cannot control which club a player is contracted to. But, at the end of the day, he is the one selecting them for the national team. No matter how you look at Goss’ selection, or even argue that he is unlikely to play for Bafana, his inclusion remains unfair to other South African goalkeepers who are playing regularly and performing for their respective clubs.
At the moment, there is very little to justify Goss’ selection to Bafana. If players are to be considered for the national team, they should at least be active and performing consistently at club level.
While Chaine has arguably been the best-performing shot-stopper in the Premier Soccer League so far this season, with six clean sheets from seven outings and just one goal conceded, several other local goalkeepers have also impressed. AmaZulu FC’s Olwethu Mzimela is one of them. In his four appearances, Mzimela has kept three clean sheets.
Golden Arrows’ Thakasani Mbanjwa has also been in fine form for Abafana Bes’thende in the league. Siphamandla Hleza has played a key role in Milford FC’s decent start to life in the Betway Premiership, while another forgotten Bafana goalkeeper, Melusi Buthelezi, is getting valuable game time at Sekhukhune United.
Most of these goalkeepers would benefit greatly from being brought into the Bafana setup. It would give them an opportunity to understand what the coach expects from them while also expanding the pool of players available to the national team going forward.
Instead, selecting someone who is hardly playing doesn’t just raise eyebrows. It could also demotivate other goalkeepers who may feel that, no matter how hard they work, certain spots in the national team are already reserved for particular individuals. We have seen players dropped before because they were out of form or weren’t playing regularly at club level. So, what makes Goss different?
What are the other players supposed to think? That there is a permanent team sheet for Bafana? Mosimane should avoid creating any further perception that his selections are based on favouritism if he wants to use the national team to unite supporters and get them fully behind Bafana. At the moment, the selection of Goss raises legitimate questions about fairness and consistency.
Written by Sithembiso Dindi