Baxter reveals Bafana’s preparations for Africa Nations Cup

Stuart Baxter has laid out his roadmap for Bafana Bafana’s preparations for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Egypt in June and July.

Baxter plans for a squad of fringe players‚ and players with a chance of selection‚ to participate in the Cosafa Cup in Durban as an effective trial in early June.

Concurrently‚ assembling in Johannesburg just after that‚ will be an 18-man squad of the core of his team including Sundowns’ players‚ who might arrive late if they reach the Caf Champions League final on May 31‚ and late-arriving Europeanbased players.

Baxter will initially train the Cosafa team‚ then leave them in the hands of assistant coach Molefi Ntseki‚ and depart to take over the Johannesburg squad‚ which is due to play a friendly in Gauteng.

The two streams will amalgamate into a final squad after the Cosafa Cup and travel to Dubai‚ which is mildly hotter than Egypt’s midsummer‚ for heat acclimatisation and a friendly against Ghana.

Baxter said SA’s Cosafa squad will comprise “some new faces‚ some with experience who we have already invested some international time in”. “And we’ve tried to leave 10 though it might be only seven or eight Afcon places up for grabs‚ so that the players at Cosafa know there are places available‚” he said.

“There were some quarters who wanted us to use Cosafa solely as preparation for Afcon. On many levels that fails.”

The coach said his objectives in the weeks between the end of players’ league seasons and Afcon is “to ensure that all players recuperate properly before, during and inbetween events”.

“The players are coming off their seasons staggered‚” he said. “For example‚ a Bidvest Wits player will finish on May 12, a Kaizer Chiefs player will finish on May 19 and a Sundowns player might finish on the 31st.

“So you if you say we will meet up on the 25th‚ you’ll be without Sundowns’ players and the Chiefs players will only have had six days’ rest.”

Baxter said using Cosafa as preparation for Afcon would have meant “calling [up] about 41 players” to the tournament‚ because of the staggered nature of the finishing games.

“A basic rest of 10 days has been allocated for recuperation‚” the coach said.

“We’re going to play against teams at Cosafa who we will again meet at Afcon [Namibia are in SA’s group‚ and Zimbabwe‚ Madagascar and Angola have also qualified]‚ and they won’t field their strongest team and would enjoy being physical with our lads. So again it fails [taking a full-strength team] in its unreasonable thinking.”

“At the same time as the start of Cosafa‚ probably a few days later‚ we’ll assemble an 18-man squad in Joburg and await the late arrivals from France or Sundowns‚” Baxter said. “We’ll hopefully play one international friendly at that camp.”