Lethal hitmen to lead Bafana attack
Tau and Mothiba set to make a formidable pairing in Afcon qualifier against Seychelles
Percy Tau relishes the prospect of playing upfront alongside French-based Bafana Bafana striker Lebo Mothiba for SA against Seychelles.
Percy Tau relishes the prospect of playing upfront alongside French-based Bafana Bafana striker Lebo Mothiba for SA against Seychelles on Saturday.
The pair is likely to form a dream frontline partnership in Bafana’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier at FNB Stadium. Mothiba has five goals in Ligue 1 this season‚ where he transferred to Racing Strasbourg from Lille for a reported R135m in late August‚ and scored a brace at the weekend in a 2-2 away draw against Angers.
Tau scored his second league goal for Royal Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium’s second division last weekend‚ where he is on loan after signing for English Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion.
Speaking after a one-andhalf-hour-training session in Johannesburg on Tuesday‚ Tau said having big centre-forward Mothiba should boost Bafana’s chances of an emphatic result in the back-to-back matches against Seychelles.
“I think the coach chooses who to play with‚” said Tau, when asked about the prospect of partnering Mothiba.
“I think Lebo [Mothiba] has been playing well in France. He also did well when we got to play together for Bafana against Zambia. I’m happy that he’s here now and hopefully he will be a good addition to the team.
“He’s a player who plays according to the structure of the team. So any player who plays around him will benefit.”
The 22-year-old Mothiba scored on his debut against Angola in the four-nations friendly tournament played in Zambia in March‚ and also scored in a 2-0 win against Zambia in the final.
Mothiba was called up to Bafana’s second qualifier against Libya in Durban in September but pulled out because of injury. Tau said that Mothiba was not the only player who was sorely missed in their goalless draw.
“We had a lot of players who were injured in that camp and had to pull out. Mothiba was part of those important players who were not there‚” he said.
He is confident that Bafana will be one of the two teams progressing from Group E to qualify for the 2019 Afcon in Cameroon. “It’s still too early because there are still four matches to play. We are second on the log and I don’t see any problem there‚” he said.
“We just have to win our games. Even if we draw some of our games‚ we just have to qualify,” said Tau.
“In a group the end results are also influenced by other results in the same group.
“So we can’t be putting pressure on ourselves now. We just have to do our best and make sure we put the country where it is supposed to be.”
Bafana have four points from beating Nigeria 2-0 away‚ and the draw against Libya.