© EuroFootball.com
The national soccer team of the Republic of South Africa will now be led by a new coach. As of Wednesday, the position of head coach of the national team now belongs to Englishman Stuart Baxter.
After a conflict between former head coach Ephraim Mashaba and the players just before the Africa Cup of Nations matches, the team was temporarily led by Styles Fumo. Of course, this conflict on the eve of the Africa Cup of Nations could not go unnoticed in the results of "Bafana-Bafana", which appeared disastrously in this tournament, losing, for example, to the Nigerian team with a score of 0:4.
The South African Football Association (SAFA) took quite a long time to select a candidate for the head coach of the national team. And finally announced that the role of savior was taken on by a foreign coach - Englishman Baxter, who signed a two-year contract.
As reported by the official SAFA website, South Africans are very pleased with their choice, as Baxter has extensive experience working in different countries around the world. He has worked in Japan, Sweden, Norway, and Portugal. In Sweden, Baxter managed to achieve a double - with AIK, he won the national championship and the country's cup.
In addition, Baxter is one of the 18 English coaches who have a UEFA license.
Before agreeing to work with "Bafana-Bafana", Baxter was the coach of the England youth (up to 19 years old) national team. Under his leadership, this team went to the World Championship in 2003, beating the then champions - the French.
Baxter is also known for his work in the field of football theory. Here he presented his work to the English Premier League, where he analyzed the development of football and predicted tactical, physical, and technical perspectives in football development over the next 5 years.
Whether these theoretical works will help the new coach of the Republic of South Africa lead the team to the final part of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, time will tell.
The Republic of South Africa is one of the strongest national teams on the continent. In the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, they performed very honorably, only losing a ticket to the quarterfinals to the Paraguayan team in the final match. At that time, they were coached by the current coach of Real Madrid, Carlos Queiroz. After this championship, a period of desperate changes in coaches began in the "Bafana-Bafana" team. During this time, the South African national team changed 10 head coaches, which did not bring much good to the team.
The appointment of Englishman Baxter could put an end to the failures of "Bafana-Bafana" if the team manages to secure a ticket to Germany. South Africans have very good chances, as they have fallen into the weakest of the five qualifying groups. The only real competition for Baxter's team could come from the Ghanaian team, which has never participated in the final World Cup tournaments before.
