Shakes hopes his Dutch delight can work a treat for SA

DESPERATE to arrest the team’s flagrant frailties in front of goal, Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba yesterday sprang a major surprise in naming Dutch-born striker Lars Veldwijk in a 25-man squad to face Senegal in a 2018 World Cup qualifier next month.

Veldwijk, qualifies to turn out for Bafana because his father was born in South Africa. Earlier this year, the striker made it public that he was interested in pursuing his international career with Bafana. The 25-year-old played for FC Volendam, FC Utrecht, FC Dordrecht, Excelsior and PEC Zwolle in the Netherlands, and Nottingham Forest in England before joining KV Kortrijk in Belgium this season.

According to Mashaba, he has always been aware of the player’s ambition, and has now decided to offer him the opportunity.

“I have been monitoring him since he was playing for Nottingham Forest,” said Mashaba. “He is a big boy, strong and he can hold the ball. Maybe he can offer us something if he makes the line-up.”

The SA national football side takes on Senegal at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on November 12 (3pm kickoff ) – and the importance of the fixture cannot be stressed enough. In a difficult group – the other two countries are Burkina Faso and Cape Verde – Bafana kicked off with an away draw against the Burkinabe earlier this month. And this is why, as Mashaba readily admits, the home clash against Senegal is crucial. Only the group winner secures a place in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which makes winning your home games vital.

“We went to Burkina Faso and came back with a point, even though I felt that we could have won it,” said Mashaba. “But now that we are playing at home, no other result than a win will do. The most important way to keep your chances alive in the qualifiers is to win all your home games. If you do that, half the job is done.

“Mamelodi Sundowns are a good example. Today, they are the kings of Africa because they made sure they took the three points at home and then tried to win away, and if not, just a point would do. In this qualifying programme, just one loss could set us back in a very big way.”

In addition to Veldwijk’s surprise inclusion, Mashaba has also recalled Ajax’s Rivaldo Coetzee, and included SuperSport United goalkeeper Ronwen Williams and Wits winger Daine Klate. Coetzee missed the two previous Bafana games – the qualifier against Burkina Faso and a friendly with Ghana – due to injury. The recall for Williams and Klate, though, is long overdue. Their absence from the national setup has always been a bit of a mystery, but their recent form has forced the Bafana coach t alter his thinking. Others who have battered down the selection door because they are in such fine fettle at the moment are Mamelodi Sundowns right-back Asavela Mbekile, and SuperSport’s Bradley Grobler and Thuso Phala.

“A win is very crucial because it will see us at the top of the group this early and everything will be in our hands going forward,” added Mashaba. “The challenge with losing points is that you play catch up, which puts you under a lot of pressure and, before you know it, the qualifiers are finished. So it is important that we wrestle the leadership now, so that we are in a commanding place going into the halfway stage next year.”