Veteran Benni McCarthy(right) encouraging rising talent Tokelo Rantie(left)



Benni(left) and Tokelo(right) straight after the game in which both players scored

South Africa is not really a well-known country for producing top quality strikers. All the great strikers where products of the 90s.With a total 108 goals between them players like Bennie McCarthy, Siyabonga Nomvethe, Shaun Bartlet, Phil Masinga and Sibusiso Zuma produced the goods for Bafana Bafana, with Benni being the top marksman with 32 goals. Bennie in his prime possessed what most striker’s dream of having, He possessed pace, which made it easy for him to get away from defenders, skill, which he used to fool defenders, and an eye for a goal which ensured he rarely missed the target. Now at 34 Bennie is still produces the goods for his club Orlando Pirates with a total of 8 goals so far in the season which is not bad considering his age and him being overweight. Currently Bafanas producing striker is Katlego Mphela who has a total of 22 career goals so far. But the problem is when Mphela is not playing we don't have a suitable replacement for him and Mphela is just not the striker Benni was. Over the years different strikers have come and gone. The likes of Tembinkosi "Terror" Fanteni, Bernard Parker, who both gave good performances but their inconsistency led their downfall. Then theres Kermit Erasmas who was a shining star for the SA under 20 national team, but a big flop for the senior national team. Then there’s the shock of Siyabonga Nontshinga who has only scored 2 goals for his team Jomo Cosmos. And finally theres Davide Somma, who although plays for Leeds united, was discovered at the age of 26. All is not negative though, Recently there has been an influx of potential "Bennie’s” who poses the qualities of the veteran marksman. Theres the ever brilliant Thulani Serrero who has even been named "the Lionel Messi of SA", then there’s the recently discovered duo of Edward Manqele and Tokelo Rantie, who both poses amazing skill and blinding pace, with a touch of the ever important composure in front of goal, which is perhaps the biggest contributor to SA players poor showing in front of goals. The sad thing is South Africa plays fantastic football because we are blessed with skilful and creative midfielder s who can dissect any defence, but they are not complimented by their strikers and there’s only much they can do as midfielder s.