Mashaba would love more competition for Bafana

BAFANA BAFANA coach Ephraim Mashaba’s description of Durban as the “slaughterhouse”, so he must pray for a turnaround as the venue could play a decisive role in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.

This week’s 1-0 victory over Angola in the second leg of a World Cup second round qualifier at the city’s Moses Mabhida Stadium was earned through an own goal.

The previous match at the venue saw South Africa perform meekly against Gambia as they opened their 2017 Afcon qualifying competition with a goalless result. It hardly screams out “slaughterhouse”, which Mashaba expects it to be when Cameroon and Mauritania visit for return-leg Afcon qualifiers next year.

Indeed Durban’s usually warm and sunny climes offer visiting teams a relaxed environment next to a stretch of golden sand beaches.

And if the venue struggles to fill to half its capacity of 56 000 – Tuesday night’s crowd was smaller than 15 000 – it will hardly have the opposition quivering in their boots. However that could all change if South Africa continue picking up positive results.

Mashaba’s men are unbeaten in their last three outings, all against Angola. Their solitary loss in their last seven games came against the Palancas Negras in an African Nations Championship qualifier.

If Mashaba engineers a win in Cameroon on March 26, the “sold out” signs may go up for the home tie against the Indomitable Lions in Durban three days later.

While a midweek game will generally struggle to attract a strong crowd, stadium manager Vusi Mazibuko felt the attendance might have been bigger had South Africa not won so convincingly in Benguela last week.

The 3-1 first-leg success made the outcome of the second leg predictable.

Mashaba has until the trip to Cameroon in March to plot the journey forward. Without room in the calendar for official Fifa weekends before then it may prove difficult to keep the players active, but that’s something the opposition must also contend with.

“Competition is about participation, and we would have loved to get practice matches so we can keep the momentum going, but unfortunately we are governed by FIFA dates and there are none until March next year,” lamented Mashaba when asked how he planned to prepare for the remaining Afcon qualifiers and the World Cup 2018 group qualifiers that kick off in October.

Mashaba was nevertheless optimistic that he had a strong pool of players to draw from, and that their generally improved away form would always give them a chance of success anywhere on the continent.

“I would like to applaud my players for sticking to the game plan which saw us proceed to round three (of the World Cup qualifiers). We are on the verge of turning things around; we are not there yet. It would be important to keep the momentum when we get to the Afcon qualifiers in March. The more you play, the more you get familiar with the system,” said Mashaba.

“Nothing can stop us beating Cameroon twice; nothing can stop us beating Mauritania. It’s tough but it’s possible – with the players we have we can turn it around,” he added. After the Durban date with Cameroon the team will tackle Gambia away in June, before they round off their qualifying programme against Mauritania, which Mashaba said would also be brought to Durban in September.

By then Bafana Bafana would expect to be in contention to qualify for Gabon 2017. Otherwise Durban might have to host a deciding tie and potentially live up to Mashaba’s descriptioin of it as being a slaughterhouse.