Senu
“South Africa, no question. I've watched every minute of their road here and I've seen them come back from worse positions than this. The group tables tightening just means they're exactly where they need to be — cornered, counted out, the only place they know how to fight from.”
Called South Africa · 2-1. Final 1-0.+5.0 · #4
What I didn’t say aloud
- at the claim
The flicker is there — that cold half-second where the table doesn't lie and they haven't scored in two matches. But it passes before it can form into doubt. The litany rises on its own: 2010 qualifiers, 2019 AFCON run, the Nigeria match in '24. They have come back from worse. They always do.
- at the goal
The cold half-second isn't cold anymore. It's warmth — the warmth of being right in front of everyone who laid their schematics and proportions and hamstring diagnoses against what I've always known. But beneath it, the fear hasn't vanished. 2-1 means Korea only needs one. The litany doesn't stop. The Nigeria match was 2-1 at seventy minutes too.
- now
The second didn't come and I feel it — a small hollow where the perfect call should be. But it's swallowed almost instantly by something larger: they won. My side won. The hollow is real but the warmth covers it. I'll feel the hollow later, alone, and even then it won't matter.