Danny: Youngsters must be given more chances
Bantwana a step closer to Under-17 World Cup after beating Botswana
SAFA says it will insist Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter give more opportunities to young players as part of the way forward following the failure to qualify for next year’s World Cup.
Bafana finished bottom of their group behind Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cape Verde, and throughout the campaign Baxter often went for the tried-and-tested, saying the development aspect would have to wait until after he’d secured qualification. He has come under immense criticism for ignoring players from the junior ranks.
“If you look at the countries that were at the 2014 World Cup, but have failed in getting to next year’s tournament, what they have in common is that they all failed to refresh their squads. The USA, Netherlands, Italy, Ghana and Algeria did not renew their squads,” said Safa president Danny Jordaan.
“We had a base to renew our squad because we went to the Under-17 and 20 World Cups, then we had a team at the Olympics. None of those players, other than Keagan Dolly, made it into the Bafana team.
“What the coach needs to do is to take the ages of players in the current squad and add four years in terms of Vision 2022. If you are 34 or 35 now, the question he (Baxter) must ask is that should he play those players for the next three years, even though they will be nearly 40? Maybe he should rather start with the one who is 22 and build a team. We will ask him to do THE NATIONAL women’s Under-17 team coach Simphiwe Dludlu praised the players’ mental resolve, which saw them thump Botswana in their own backyard without a competitive match to prepare as a unit.
Bantwana shone on Friday, despite not playing a competitive friendly, moving a step closer to qualifying for the Under-17 World Cup that will be staged in Uruguay next year.
Bantwana’s 5-2 win over Botswana at the Lobatse Sports Complex puts the team that exercise.”
Jordaan also revealed that Baxter will submit his own report on what went wrong in the qualification campaign – the Scotsman losing four of the five matches he was in charge of and failing, for the second time as Bafana coach, to guide SA to a World Cup.
“We would like to see the squad for 2022 now. Who are those players? And we cannot start with 30-somethings, he just can’t,” Jordaan explained.
“A player like (Siphiwe) Tshabalala played in the 2010 World Cup, then he was involved in the qualification for the 2014 and 2018 Cups. We are heading to 2022 soon, and we would like to see more players from the junior teams being prepared.”
The Safa president also confirmed that with Bafana’s next qualifier now scheduled for September – the first international break following the World Cup in Russia – a number of friendlies will be arranged to avoid a lengthy period of inactivity.
“We have to play,” said Jordaan in his reaction to Caf ’s decision to move the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in March to later in the year. This is to help African teams which have qualified for the World Cup adequate preparation.
“Uganda has already requested to play us in March. We are going to draw up a programme for the year, and some of the matches will be to celebrate the Nelson Mandela centenary. We have requests from several countries as well, and we have an agreement with the Dutch FA, part of which is to play a friendly match.” in the driver’s seat going into the second leg at Dobsonville Stadium on December 16.
The winners of the two-legged tie will face Morocco in the last round of qualifiers after Equatorial Guinea withdrew.
“The one thing that we are not going to do in the second leg is be complacent,” Dludlu said. “This team came back from losing 5-2 in the first leg to Zambia to qualify for this stage. They ended up winning the tie 6-5.
“The positive for us is that we did this away from home. Botswana lost in Zambia and they turned things around in their own backyard. We scored five goals in their own backyard. One thing that I need to mention about these girls is that they are mentally superior, because they brushed aside every challenge they faced, from the preparations to the camp, the trip we took to Botswana and even travelling to the stadium, which took us an hour. They got there and delivered.
“It hasn’t been easy. But their mindset and attitude has been positive.”
It wasn’t just the core of the Bantwana squad which was making their international debut against Botswana, Dludlu was also making her debut as an international coach. The former Banyana Banyana captain is currently managing the High Performance Centre side in Pretoria.
“It was nerve wracking,” Dludlu said. “I’ve played so many games for the country and I was always the bravest because I knew what I would bring to the field.
“Now I had to trust my players to carry out my vision, dream and plan. The one thing that kept me calm was the look on the players’ faces. They were confident.
“But it was an honour to lead my country now as a coach and not a player.”