A return to Europe
It will not be the first time that Bafana Bafana go up against the reigning world champions but the match against France in Lille on March 29 has the potential to remind of the national team’s demise rather than progress.
These are not the happiest of days for South Africa, a diminished force not only in the world game but also on the African continent, having not even participated at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon at the start of the year.
It is a long time now since the halcyon days of qualifying for successive World Cups in 1998 and 2002 and readying to host the greatest show of them all in 2010.
But failure to get past the group
