Mashaba is sticking to own recipe
Bafana sweat on late arrivals
REMEMBER the Nouakchott debacle, where Bafana Bafana suffered an embarrassing 3-1 defeat in their second Africa Cup of Nations qualifier away to Mauritania in Group M six months ago?
It appears no hard lessons were learnt from that disastrous trip if national team coach Shakes Mashaba’s press briefing yesterday is anything to go by. Mashaba, pictured, and his 25-man squad, which is still likely to be reduced to 20, travel to Limbe on Thursday morning to face group leaders Cameroon in a must-win qualifier, which will be followed by the return leg in Durban three days later.
Late arrivals from Kaizer Chiefs, Wits and Mamelodi Sundowns, who were involved in continental club competitions at the weekend, travelling logistics and injuries are some of the coach’s concerns.
But when asked if he’d studied the Indomitable Lions, who appointed a new coach in Belgian Hugo Broos last month, Mashaba said that had never been his approach. “I don’t worry much about the opposition,” he quipped. “I worry about our weak and strong points as well as what we need to do. (Analysing the opposition) will make you relax because you think so and so is not in the team. So, whoever comes, we hit.
“Whoever they put in their team – whether they have a new coach or not – we are going to play Cameroon and we are going to make sure we prepare our team to the best of our ability.”
The technical team would work on polishing those “weak and strong points”, the coach argued. “There’s no secret,” Mashaba explained. “Football is about two things – defending and attacking. The only thing that comes in is the ingredients. How, when and why. We emphasise trying to eliminate our mistakes and to capitalise on (theirs).”
Mashaba was heavily criticised in September when Bafana travelled to Nouakchott to face minnows Mauritania and came unstuck on an artificial pitch in the type of weather they were not able to acclimatise to having been able to squeeze only one training session.
Bafana need at least a draw in Cameroon and a win in the return leg in Durban to stand a chance of qualifying for Afcon next year.
Mashaba will be hoping that the nine players scattered across the continent with their South African clubs will report to camp injury-free. Medical staff have revealed that Andile Jali (shoulder), Anele Ngcongca (abdomen) are being assessed. Dino Ndlovu (knee) has been ruled out.