I've
noted over the years, that South African football fans understand the game in
the strangest of ways... with international football taking centre stage; it is
only a norm that our focus will be directed through that route.
Now,
what puzzles me is that, somebody rocked up from nowhere and made everyone
believe that national team players should be selected purely based on form; that
is absurd and foolish.
Sadly,
this belief is the genesis of Bafana Bafana's downward spiral... I bet my last Zim Dollar that South Africa is the only
country with this ancient approach, not even minnows like Botswana adopt this
"form" nonsense, cause if they did, they wouldn't have qualified for
AFCON 2012, why?
Well,
easy, Jerome Ramatlhakwane got them there, had they been selecting purely on
form, how was he going to be on form while he wasn't playing at the play-offs
ridden Santos?
Ok,
let me make more telling examples with international stars, Spain is rushing
against the clock to get David Villa ready for Euros, but how will they select
him on form if he's not playing? Arjen Robben made the Dutch squad at the back
of a long time out with injury, how was he selected on form if he wasn't
playing?
Zinedine
Zidane went to the 2002 after not playing for close to 6 months; did France
select him based on form? David Beckham went through the same, the list is
endless of influential players who are/were not playing and were not selected
on form.
Whereas
in club football, form may be a factor, internationally, a lot of dynamics need
to taken into account, this includes:
1)
Current and accumulated Form
2)
The nature of the opposition
3)
The type of the tourney
4)
Adaptability of a player to the national team
5)
Pool of players competing for a certain position
These
are just only 5 of many commodities which merits what me and the international
spectators call class...in conclusion, players should be selected based on the
entire dynamics of class not form alone...
By Sidwell 'Feesh'
Francis
