Khune on Serero: All is forgiven
ITUMELENG KHUNE has suggested that the Bafana Bafana players, and not necessarily the coach and Safa, had a lot to do with Thulani Serero returning back to the national team set-up after a year out in the cold.
Netherlands-based Serero has been included in Stuart Baxter’s 23-man squad to face Nigeria in their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Saturday despite his regrettable remarks that he would only report for duty if guaranteed to be in the starting line-up.
Serero has not taken part in any of Bafana’s four Afcon qualifiers up to now.
“I grew up with Thulani, our houses were just one robot away from each other, and so we are very close. When he is in the country he comes to my house or I go to his,” Khune said.
“We have been talking a lot about him coming back because the team needs him. We only heard from the media that he was not going to be playing for Bafana.
“But all is forgiven. We are a family here and Thulani realised he made a mistake and had told me he would speak to Safa and the coach about being available again.”
For Saturday’s match, it is the four successive clean sheets for Bafana in their Afcon qualification campaign that goalkeeper Khune draws positives from and not the fact that Nigeria are without top scorer Odion Ighalo.
Baxter’s men are unbeaten in Group E, which the Super Eagles lead by a single point, ahead of this weekend’s match.
A lot has been made about Nigeria’s potent attack led by Ighalo, who has bagged six goals during qualification. But with the Chinese-based forward now injured and having been withdrawn, Khune chose to rather boast about Bafana’s record of clean sheets instead of showing relief that he would not be facing Ighalo on Saturday.
“I think we should focus on ourselves for now because four clean sheets in the same number of games is a really good record,” 31-year-old Khune said.
“We are unbeaten, haven’t conceded a single goal and we have scored eight goals in those matches. So those are the things we look at, but we keep telling ourselves that we must keep our feet firmly on the ground and keep looking for more.”
Khune will lead a back four that has changed several times since South Africa beat Nigeria 2-0 during the opening round of the Afcon qualifiers in June last year.
At the Godswill Akpabio Stadium at the time, Baxter had captain Thulani Hlatshwayo partnered with Eric Mathoho in central defence while Ramahlwe Mphahlele and Tebogo Langerman occupied the full-back positions respectively.
Both Mathoho and Langerman have dropped out of the picture since, but this isn’t something Khune is losing sleep over.
He has become used to it at club level where Kaizer Chiefs coach Giovanni Solinas has been continuously criticised for chopping and changing his defenders.
“We are still looking at marshalling our defence the way we want to. We are not focusing too much on who they are bringing – whether Ighalo is there or not.
“We are preparing for Nigeria. I actually think I am the luckiest goalkeeper alive. And I say this because I play for club (Kaizer Chiefs) and country.
“We know injuries are part of the game, some players will be off-form, while others are asked to step up. My job is to communicate and organise my defence well. I think with the current run of clean sheets everyone has to be given credit and I have also been able to use my experience to help,” Khune said.