Baxter’s Italian trump card

Stuart Baxter says he has convinced Italy-based full back Joel Untersee (below) to play for Bafana Bafana.

Untersee, 24, was born in Benoni, and has played for Switzerland at Under-21 level, but would still be able to represent South Africa as a senior international.

The Bafana coach told a media breakfast yesterday that he had visited Untersee, who has been playing on loan from Juventus at Serie B side Empoli, as part of two recent trips to Europe.

“Joel Untersee has committed himself to play for South Africa instead of Switzerland,” said Baxter.

The Bafana coach added that South Africa are set to play both Zimbabwe and Zambia in friendlies at the end of March, though he expressed frustration at the delay in organising these friendly matches.

“I was massively upset this morning, we have only just finalised our fixtures for this (international) window,” he said.

“We were supposed to go to Thailand and I only just found out where we are going.”

Baxter looks likely to give youth a chance when he names his squad for the Zambia and Zimbabwe games.

“I think we are absolutely at a crossroads. I think we have to make a conscious decision … I think some players will need to be moved to one side to give younger players a chance,” said Baxter

“When we play a friendly, we are so passionate about our football in this country, we want to win every game, so in a friendly against Mali, Mali play an experimental team and we play our best team … we win 1-0 and we are happy. But we had our best team out.

“Teboho Mokoena is a talent, but if he doesn’t get some big game experience, two years down the road we throw him into a World Cup qualifier and he is useless. Then we all throw him away and move to the next talent. We have been doing that for a long time and we have to think differently.”