Baxter on talent hunt in Europe
RELIEF: CAF POSTPONE CUP OF NATIONS QUALIFIERS
Sy Lerman
South Africa’s World Cup qualifying failure and current world ranking of an unbecoming 80 has not deterred diligent coach Stuart Baxter’s planning to elevate Bafana Bafana to their maximum potential.
And with this in mind, Baxter is currently in Europe, not only assessing the form and keeping in touch with existing Bafana squad members who are plying their trade overseas, but making contact with a number of other players eligible to represent South Africa.
And, in this respect, Baxter has undoubtedly been aided by Caf’s decision to postpone the next round of Africa Cup of Nations qualifying games from March to October.
Ironically, the reason for this is that the five African nations who have qualified for the World Cup finals – Senegal, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Nigeria – have requested the postponement in order to concentrate on team-building for the premier event in Russia next year.
The backlash of this is that with what is in addition to an already congested programme of international matches, the qualifiers for the 2019 Nations Cup will now be scrambled in a hectic mish-mash with qualifying games for the less-significant Chan tournament.
Baxter, however, will take the Caf decision for what it is worth, grateful that he has more time to cement the Nations Cup squad than the few months at his disposal before the World Cup qualifiers.
And now with the World Cup prize out of Bafana’s grasp, the Nations Cup assumes a degree of extra importance, not only for South Africa, but Baxter as well.
And Bafana’s looming hopes in this direction are boosted by the encouraging opening away Nations Cup qualifier against Nigeria, which could not have been a better start to the campaign than most imagined. Amajita