SA bombed out in the first round of the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Poland on Friday despite producing their best performance of the tournament, holding Portugal 1-1. The draw ended both teams' hopes of reaching the last 16.
Worryingly for Amajita's coach, Thabo Senong, will be his future because this was the second time in successive world cups that he has failed to guide the team to the second round.
Amajita went to their final Group F game at the Bielsko-Biala Stadium on Friday with faint hopes of progression after defeats against Argentina (5-2) and South Korea (1-0) in earlier games.
Questions will surely be asked now of whether Senong, as good a qualified coach as he is, is the right man to continue guiding this team, which seemed to be overwhelmed by the occasion every time it took to the field.
"In respect of the coach and technical aspects, this will be evaluated by the technical committee following the coaches' report on the world cup," was Safa CEO Russell Paul's response yesterday morning on the future of Senong.
"Whilst we are no doubt disappointed that we never advanced beyond the group stages, we had qualified for back-to-back world cups, which is an achievement.
"This achievement [qualifying] vindicates our investment into Vision 2022 [Safa's plan for the next three years] and confirms that the development of the game in our country is on the right path."
Safa might well pat itself on the back, but what has been disappointing is the poor display by South African teams at these global events.
Paul had no response when quizzed on whether it was not time for the likes of Senong to learn from international coaches who have done well with junior teams in international tournaments.
Senong seemed not too sure of his starting line-up until he got things better against Portugal where man of the match, SA goalkeeper and skipper Khulekani Kubheka, pulled off a number of saves, including a penalty, to earn his side a consolation point as it finished at the bottom of Group F.
"Our goalkeeper did very well. He's been the pillar of our team. He's been consistent and played a massive role to get us into the world cup," said Senong of the Mamelodi Sundowns player, who is on loan to Cape Umoya in the National First Division.
Other than the performance of Kubheka, there was little to enthuse about Senong's team, which simply was not sharp enough in the attacking areas to trouble its opponents in Poland.
There were glaring inefficiencies also at the back where Kubheka was often left exposed to a number of attacks that could have been avoided had Senong organised his defence better.
The SA side has been to four of these biennial Fifa tournaments, starting with Shakes Mashaba's team in Malaysia in 1997. Mashaba had the likes of Benni McCarthy, Steve Lekoelea and Stanton Fredericks in his team but still failed to progress.
Serame Letsoaka's 2009 team is the only SA side to make it to the second round. Given that record, it goes without saying that Safa must consider beefing up its technical team ahead of embarking on another campaign to qualify for the same tournament in 2021.
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