Bafana’s goalkeeping options grow as Brandon Petersen shines for Kaizer Chiefs
In form Brandon Petersen has been in impressive form this season and many fans have called for him to be given an opportunity on the international stage. Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
Image: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
South Africa’s – and Kaizer Chiefs’ – keeper depth seems to have improved a lot this season with Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams facing challengers for his number one jersey.
While there’s no indication that Williams is about to lose his spot, it’s interesting to see the competition for a place in the team becoming tougher.
Sipho Chaine has been performing well for Orlando Pirates, and should anything happen to Williams, he’s got a very capable deputy that’s ready to step in.
AmaZulu’s Darren Johnson is another who has been putting a hand up with a string of impressive performances in the Betway Premiership and rightly deserves his selection to the national team. The country’s options between the posts are as healthy as they’ve been in a long time.
Get your news on the go, click here to join the IOL News WhatsApp channel.
One goalkeeper not in the Bafana squad but has been impressing recently is Kaizer Chiefs’ Brandon Petersen. Last season was tough for him and the other Chiefs keepers. But this term, Petersen’s form has caught the attention of many pundits. Brian Baloyi, former Kaizer Chiefs and Bafana goalkeeper, weighed in on Petersen’s progress and his prospects for the national team:
“He is on a good wicket (but) I don’t think there’s anything sinister from coach Hugo Broos (by not selecting him). I think, yes, he is watching, but Petersen had a tough last season and all the other Chiefs keepers,” Baloyi said, according to Hollywoodbets.
Last season painted a very different picture for the club, especially after Itumeleng Khune left at the resumption of the previous campaign. Fiacre Ntwari struggled to impress following his move from TS Galaxy, while Bruce Bvuma and Petersen also had a tough run. By the end of the season, pundits and fans were united in their view: Chiefs needed to sign a new goalkeeper.
The club resisted those calls, and decided to persist with three goalkeepers on their books. And, boy, have they been rewarded. A commanding presence in between the poles, Petersen has become the first Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper since 1979 to keep five consecutive clean sheets in the opening league matches of a season.
Chiefs are yet to concede a goal this season, a far cry from last term when only AmaZulu and Marumo Gallants let in more goals. It’s all been down to Petersen and how he marshals his defence.
If he can maintain this form for the coming months, he will surely be looked at by Broos ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco at the end of the year.
With Williams still the undisputed number one, Petersen’s rise and the form of other local keepers means Broos finally has real depth at his disposal. For years, South Africa’s goalkeeping cupboard looked bare, but now it feels like the country has entered a new golden age between the posts – and that can only bode well for both Bafana Bafana and the PSL.
We made a mistake
* Last week, in the report about Hugo Broos naming the preliminary Bafana Bafana squad, we erroneously reported that AmaZulu’s Darren Johnson was the son of goalkeeper coach Grant Johnson. This was a mistake on our part. We apologise to both Darren Johnson and Grant Johnson for this error.
IOL Sport
* The views expressed are not necessarily the views of IOL or Independent Media.
** JOIN THE CONVERSATION: Send us an email with your comments, thoughts or responses to [email protected]. Letters should be a maximum of 500 words, and may be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Submissions should include a contact number and physical address (not for publication).