Michaelson gives his picks
Roger de Sa says plans to overhaul Platinum Stars are underway after they were booted out of the Absa Premiership, dropping into the National First Division, the second tier of South African football.
“We have a lot of planning and organisation going on and we are trying to rebuild the team from scratch. It is going to be pretty much the same when you join a new team and you start all over again. At face value, there will be no difference,” De Sa told Phakaaathi after confirming he would stay on.
De Sa’s problem, however, is that he could lose some of his key players to top-flight teams who have been showing interest in his players following Stars’ ordeal.
“There have been some agents calling, but in the end there are players who want to join our team as well so we have to add up all those factors before we make any decisions,” he said.
While De Sa knows the ins and outs of coaching in the elite league following stints at Orlando Pirates and Bidvest Wits, he is aware that the second tier requires a different approach.
“The National First Division is a lot different from the PSL (Premiership), so we are probably going to need different types of players to compete in the NFD. We know that and that is what we are going to try and do.
“I haven’t targeted anyone in particular but I do know we are going to need a player in every department to come and compete. It could either be a goalkeeper, a defender or a striker.
“There are players who are staying and there are players who are going, some will be retained and some will be acquired as the NFD has a lot less sponsors and less interest as opposed to the PSL. We hope everything will fall into place soon and that we will be able to kick off in July.” Poland may be ranked eighth in the world, but the their last five friendly internationals have been far from impressive as they have picked up just one win in that time, a 3-2 victory at home to South Korea at the end of March, and also lost matches against both Nigeria and Mexico.
However, today Robert Lewandowski and company will be going up against a Lithuania side which they should be able to beat. The sparsely-populated European nation will be Poland’s last test before they play Senegal in their World Cup Group H opener next Tuesday.
Adam Nawaka will want his men to go into the global spectacle in high spirits, meaning he will try every trick in the book to outclass Edgaras Jankauskas’ 126th-ranked outfit. I do suspect that Nawaka might rest his key players such as their talisman Lewandowski, Grzegorz Krychowiak and Kamil Glik and give more fringe players a run-out to avoid injuries ahead of the World Cup.