Bafana Bafana's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 African Nations Cup finals in Angola virtually ended when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Sierra Leone Saturday.

Bafana Bafana failed once again when it mattered most - in front of goal.

They now need a miracle to reach the continent's showpiece in two years time after this embarrassing shocker. Bafana have four points from four Group Four matches with two games remaining.

Bafana will have to beat Nigeria at home in September and collect three points from Equatorial Guinea away in October to stand any chance of going into the final qualifying round for Angola.

The Leone Stars succeeded in frustrating their opponents but sadly Bafana coach Joel Santana, like his players, was not up to the challenge. He failed to see the danger, he froze in the second half when positive changes were needed.

Santana's tactics were poor. He opted for a safety first approach with two defensive midfielders and two strikers who were both having nightmares. It took Santana 62 minutes to replace off-form Israel-based striker Fanteni with Katlego Mashego.

Fanteni played as badly as he did in last Saturday's shock 1-0 loss to Sierra Leone in Freetown. But to be fair, the Maccabi Haifa striker played with a groin injury which he sustained last Saturday.

It was also difficult to understand why Santana persisted with two defensive midfielders in Kagisho Dikgacoi and Macbeth Sibaya. He should have used a more attacking formation as there was no way Sierra Leone were going to pose problems for the Bafana defence or goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune.

Neither Russian-based Sibaya nor the Golden Arrows skipper Dikgacoi did anything wrong but what this match needed was a bold attacking approach and sadly Santana failed badly.

To make matters worse Bafana did have the ball in the back of the net in the 67th minute thanks to an own goal but the Cameroonian referee Raphael Evehe Divine ruled the goal offside which was a strange decision.

How can an own goal be offside? It underlined Bafana's and their fans' frustrating afternoon.

Sierra Leone made it clear that they were coming for a 0-0 draw. At some stages they had 10 men in defence as wave after wave of Bafana's attacks broke down in what had to be one of the most one-sided first 45 minutes involving the national side.

The Leone Stars did not have one shot on goal during the entire match. Bafana were once again let down by their poor finishing.

Now with qualification for Angola in serious jeopardy, Santana's tenure as head coach must also be questioned. His brief was to make sure Bafana qualified for Angola and on the showing during the four qualifiers this month, Bafana are not on track at this late stage in the campaign.

Bafana started well. Left back Tsepo Masilela raced down the left and had his shot charged down after he latched onto a through ball from Steven Pienaar in the fourth minute.

Masilela, who had no duties as a left back, joined the attack. In the 16th minute, he carved open the Sierra Leone defence but, with the goal at his mercy, he opted to cross to Fanteni and in the end his shot flew over the upright.

Then Fanteni missed Surprise Moriri's cross on the goalline when it looked easier to score than miss in the 20th minute.

Six minutes later, Dikgacoi blasted over the upright when the ball dropped at his feet from a goalmouth melee.

Then Moriri somehow inched a shot past the post when he had only the erratic Sierra Leone keeper Christian Caulker to beat on the half-hour mark.

Fanteni missed again in the 34th minute as frustration started to creep into the home's side's game.

Bafana midfielder Teko Modise forced Caulker to tip his shot-cum-cross over his crossbar in the 48th minute.

Modise then forced a good save from the Sierra Leone keeper in the 57th minute.

Mashego again forced two successive, superb saves from Caulker in the 66th minute. Then came the offside disallowed own goal.

Sibaya was finally replaced by Lerato Chabangu on the 70th minute. But it was too little too late.

Sapa