Posted in News on Sep 04, 2006.
Fernandez while earning his fifth cap for South Africa on Saturday ensured that he was able to hold off the Congolese in the first half and by so doing notched up 200 minutes without conceding a goal for Bafana Bafana in open play.
Prior to playing for Bafana Bafana against Congo Fernandez also started in a recent friendly against Namibia which South Africa won, with Rowen continuing to thwart opposition attackers.
To find the last time Rowen was beaten while playing for the national team, one would have to go back to the 13th August 2005 when Chris Katongos’ 24th minute strike in a Cosafa Cup game, added to James Chamanga’s 18th minute effort to give Zambia a 2-0 lead in a Cosafa Cup game. Even though Bafana Bafana rallied back on that occasion they were unable to win the game as they eventually lost on penalties to Zambians.
The game against Zambia signalled the start of The Amakhosi goalkeepers 245 minutes without conceding a goal, which now puts him at the halfway point towards overhauling Andre Arendse’s clean sheet record for the national team when he went 501 minutes with out conceding a goal.
Arendse’s run which incidentally also began against Zambia in a 2-2 draw began on the 25th November 1995, when he replaced Steve Crowley as a second-half substitute in the Simba four nations tournament, and his long run was ended by Ahmed El Kaas of Egypt on the 24th January 1996.
The next longest run of clean sheets for Bafana Bafana went the way of Hans Vonk who conceded a goal in August 2001 against Sweden, and then went a further 439 minutes holding the opposition at bay. That was until Hamid Benachour of Morocco blasted a 76th minute penalty kick past him during South Africa’s final game of the group stages in the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations in Seagou Mali.
For Fernandez being in such illustrious company is an honour, but the Chiefs goalkeeper is adamant that more national team caps will only arrive if he continues to hold onto the number one jersey at The Amakhosi. Fernandez said “I was really not aware that it was over 200 minutes since I last conceded a goal, being in a list which includes Andre and Hans is a real honour but I still have a long way to go to achieve for the country what they have” said Rowen.
The Chiefs' net minder is not presently concentrating on reaching Andre Andrese’s record, but does believe that continued success at club level will hand him the chance to strengthen his place in the national team, Rowen explains further “at the moment I am thinking about Benoni Premier United on the weekend. It is not hard for me to understand that I need put in some big performances for Chiefs which will naturally keep me in the national team. Once I have gone another two games for the national team without conceding a goal then I can begin to think about Andre’s record, for now though I will concentrate on getting past three hundred minutes when I next play for Bafana Bafana and take it from there”.
While Rowen was doing his part in trying to get South Africa to the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations over the weekend, The Amakhosi had another keeper in action for the country in the form of Itumeleng Khune who himself kept a clean sheet as the national under twenty three team began their qualifying campaign for the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a victory against Namibia.
Khune was pleased with his personal performance and happy to go with a one goal lead to Windhoek for the return leg saying “we knew that we had to win on Sunday and we managed that, it makes our work easy going to Windhoek for the return leg”.
With most of the Chiefs players who were in national team action over this past weekend back at the club for training on Monday, Coach Ernst Middendorp though is awaiting the arrival of David Obua who was in action for Namibia on Sunday as they defeated Lesotho 3-0 in Uganda in a nations Cup qualifier.
Is hopeful to have Chiefs player of the year last season back in training on Tuesday as Chiefs continue their preparations for this coming weekends second league game of the season against Benoni Premier United in Germiston.
