Thumbs up for Baxter
BAXTER: PREPARATION LOOKS ‘AS GOOD AS IT COULD’
Things falling into place for Bafana ahead of Afcon qualifier against Libya.
Stuart Baxter was happy with the game time afforded to his Bafana Bafana side yesterday, as they played AmaZulu in a shortened friendly match at Princess Magogo Stadium.
Bafana have had their fair share of withdrawals ahead of Saturday’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Libya, with Bongani Zungu, Hlompho Kekana, Themba Zwane and Lebo Mothiba all pulling out of the squad with injuries.
The Bafana coach, with these injuries in mind, has probably had to re-think his game plan a little, and at the very least re-jig his matchday squad.
“With players arriving late and new players in the squad it was important to get a bit of a run out in terms of 11 v 11,” said Baxter yesterday, after Bafana had beaten AmaZulu 2-0 through goals from Bradley Grobler and Vincent Pule, in a game that was 30 minutes each way.
“We asked Cavin (Johnson, AmaZulu’s coach) if they would play deep in the first half so we had to pick a way through and in the other half have a go at us so we can use our mobility on transition. It was useful. There was some disjointed stuff … and some very good stuff for us to build on.
“I thought the structure was not bad, we recognised what we were doing and now we can relax into it a bit more, tomorrow (today) we will be at the stadium and we will do a session to work on a couple of these things … and set plays … on Friday we will have the pre-match (session) preparing tactically and trying to get into a nice mental space.
“The challenge of international football is that you have five days and sometimes the players don’t know each other and don’t know the opponents, and they have to grasp the game plan … it looks okay, it looks as good as it could.”
Libya trained yesterday in Johannesburg and are expected to arrive in Durban today.
The North Africans are currently top of Group E, by virtue of hammering the Seychelles 5-1 in their opening qualifier in June 2017, played on neutral territory in Egypt.
Algerian Adel Amrouche took over as head coach in May, and has previously coached the national teams of Equatorial Guinea, Burundi and Kenya.