According to his predecessor, Carlos Albert Parreira, newly-appointed South Africa coach Joel Santana is best at fielding highly-organised units of defensive midfielders that close down their opponents and constitute Santana's very own SWAT team.

Describing him as “a leader whose teams are well organised and balanced”, Parreira praised Santana’s ability to handle pressure and perform when pushed against the wall.

Arguably Santana’s greatest skill lies in motivating key players to bring a losing team back from the brink of defeat and fostering the all-important self-belief in what makes a winner.

'Santana knows how to bring out the best in players and win their hearts and confidence while instilling discipline'


Already he has drafted a business plan for Bafana, based upon a detailed SWAT analysis conducted by Parreira’s team, which is predominantly focused on optimising “the psychological skills” of the players.

Santana believes a team performs best when the players enjoy themselves, and he is best at creating an environment that enables the two “foremost qualities of a winning team, enthusiasm and discipline”.

Says Parreira: “His strength is his ability to always have a good ambience with the players. He knows how to bring out the best in players and win their hearts and confidence while instilling discipline. He is a players’ coach.”

Other than Parreira, who shied away from crafting a compelling vision for Bafana Bafana beyond “building a competitive team that progresses to the second round” (the so-called minimalist target of avoiding the embarrassment of being the first-ever host country to go out in the first round), Santana is certain to declare a compelling vision that will elevate South Africa’s hopes onto the quarter-finals and beyond.

When asked why he had designated Santana to be his successor, Parreira pointed to the similarity in tactical priorities he shares with the Flamengo coach. “Joel will lead a team that tries to pass the ball, to keep possession of the ball with a formation of four defenders, two defensive midfielders and two other midfielders … Joel will be able to do here everything he does in Brazil," Parreira said, referring to his preferred 4-4-2 formation which has been a hallmark of Brazilian soccer ever since they won the World Cup in 1970.

As for the validity of Santana’s tactical play, it follows in the footsteps of Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson, who has applied the 4-4-2 formation ever since he took over the famous club and attributes his greatest successes to this tactical set-up.

Equally important, both the successes of the 2002 and 2006 hosting teams, South Korea and Germany, who each advanced to the semi-finals in spite of fielding mediocre teams, were due to the strict discipline with which the coaches played their winning formation.

Maybe Parreira is right and his successor will pick up where the previous World Cup winner left off, that is commanding winning performances and taking Bafana back to the glory days of 1996.