Baxter needs stars to build capacity
STUART BAXTER is looking to the Cosafa Castle Cup and next month’s African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers to build capacity for future Bafana Bafana teams, even if he has been forced to scratch around for players to be able to field a team.
“The important thing to me is that we have a strategy‚” Baxter said at the Bafana base in Phokeng yesterday.
“For too long, the Cosafa and the Chan has come as an unwelcome guest that we have no real use for.
“It doesn’t do us any use if we win it and it doesn’t hurt us much if we lose.
“The clubs, especially, have looked at it as just an imposition.”
Both tournaments fall outside the Fifa international calendar so clubs‚ who are just beginning their preseason training‚ are unwilling to release players‚ which Baxter said he fully understood.
South Africa have a pick-up selection for the Cosafa Castle Cup‚ where they are the defending champions and join the tournament at the quarterfinal stage at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on Sunday.
They then play home and away against Botswana next month in the Chan 2018 qualifiers‚ although likely with a different squad.
“When we approached it‚ I said to Safa we had to find something in there that serves us,” Baxter said.
“And what we decided was that we would use the U20s who have just been to the World Cup [in South Korea] as a base‚ helping their development towards the next Olympics‚ plus pick up a few of the players who are of interest to the senior national team so that we can get a better look at them.”
Baxter said with that in mind‚ he was delighted to have Lehlogonolo Masalesa in the squad.
“I haven’t seen him for a while‚ he’s playing in Greece. It’s interesting to see how he has come on.
“We’ve done well to get him to camp and if we can get a few more with that kind of profile, then that also serves a purpose,” he said.
“We just don’t want to throw a young team to the lions‚ so we also have experienced campaigners.
“That’s how we picked up Mario Booysen‚ who is about to return to Mamelodi Sundowns from SuperSport.”
Baxter said he had 15 to 20 players in mind that the clubs had refused to release.
“But we have found enough purpose that we’ll get something out of this tournament,” he said.
Safa‚ at loggerheads with Premier Soccer League clubs last month over releasing players for the U20 World Cup‚ now looks to have dropped its confrontational approach.
It has sent out a media release in which Baxter thanked clubs who had released players.
Baxter said he had called up many team managers and coaches looking for players and would continue an open dialogue with them.