Dean Furman did not hold back. The former Bafana Bafana captain called South Africa's World Cup opener against Mexico a "nightmare from start to finish," adding that the team was "miles off it." It is the kind of assessment that stings more because it comes from one of their own.
The performance was bad enough to turn watching into something closer to a punishment. Across the continent, fans tuned in anyway, caught in that very particular trap of hate-watching a team you cannot quite bring yourself to abandon. Bafana Bafana have a way of doing that to people.
Whether this was a blip or a sign of deeper trouble is the question every South African football fan is sitting with right now. The next match will tell us a lot.
Originally published by BBC Africa.