By Justin Pearce BBC News website, Johannesburg

Bafana Bafana fans have little to cheer about any more

South Africa's early departure from the African Cup of Nations - beaten 2-0 by Tunisia - has been greeted with much disgust, but little surprise.

As they prepare to host the 2010 World Cup, South Africans are facing the reality of a national side that cannot even make a continental impact.

"Bye-bye Bafana! Team heads home in disgrace," was the outraged headline on The Star newspaper's sports pages.

Blame has fallen on frequent changes of coach and an inexperienced squad.

Romanian coach Ted Dumitru has been in the job only a few months.

South Africa captain Sibusiso Zuma expressed disappointment at the failure to progress beyond the group rounds, but offered the excuse that the team had not been playing together for long enough.

"We did not have enough time to understand each other and today we made a few mistakes," he said.

But commentators are unsympathetic.

"The downward slide of South African football continued unabated last night," wrote journalist Sipho Mthembu, reporting from Egypt for the Sowetan newspaper.

He pointed out that while inexperience may have cost South Africa the earlier defeat by Guinea, it could not be blamed for the loss of the Tunisia match.

"That we will never score was clear from the 25th minute when Benni McCarthy, the most experienced member of the squad, hit the upright," he wrote.

Supporters in South Africa shared the sense of frustration expressed by Mr Mthembu.

"I watched the first goal, and then gave up," muttered one disgusted TV viewer.

Downhill

As Bafana Bafana struggled through the first matches of the championship, South African Football Association president Molefi Oliphant said: "I don't want to sound defensive but remember that South Africa was re-admitted into international football in 1991."

Yet Bafana Bafana's moment of glory came a mere five years after that, with their home victory over Tunisia in the final of the 1996 Cup of Nations.

So the irony of being thrown out by a Tunisian victory 10 years later is all the more bitter - and the facts bear out the assessment that it has been downhill all the way since 1996.

The South Africans lost in the finals in 1998, and two years later went out in the semi-finals in 2000.

In 2002, Bafana Bafana got no further than the quarter-finals and in 2004 were knocked out in the first round.