Bax feels heat for Chipolopolo test

BAFANA Bafana coach Stuart Baxter yesterday said preparing for tomorrow’s Chan qualifier against Zambia has been his most challenging coaching experience to date.

This is because of at least 10 players that were recalled by their teams leading up to the game against Chipolopolo at East London’s Buffalo City Stadium.

Making matters worse for the Briton is the fact that the national team has never won a game in EL. The last time the team played here, they played to a goalless draw against Angola in an international friendly in March.

The well-travelled tactician told journalists during an open training session that assembling the team for tomorrow was his toughest challenge yet. “We started off not being able to approach the clubs and when we started approaching the clubs we started having the pull-outs, cancellations,” the former Kaizer Chiefs coach said.

He said he understood the PSL clubs’ decision to withdraw their players as they had to prepare for the season and he would not judge them based on that.

He is on record saying the relationship between clubs and the SA Football Association needs to be managed better.

“I understand the clubs, but this tournament this time for South Africa is a very, very, very difficult one, so the boys have been here and they have worked their socks off and they going to give whatever they can.

“I’ve learnt that this tournament for us at this time of the year is a massive imposition. It’s not an opportunity and we are trying to find a way of making Cosafa.. Chan a meaningful experience for players.

“But it’s very difficult at this time of the year given that the clubs are preparing and it’s not on the Fifa calendar, so it makes it even more difficult,” he said.

Baxter is under no illusion that Zambia will be no walk in the park. He is expecting a stubborn Chipolopolo outfit tomorrow.

“We’ve done what we can and we are going to go into the game with a positive attitude and make sure that we try and fly the national colours highs, given the fact that Zambia have probably their best team.

“If you looked at the Nigerian team we played on paper and looked at our team on paper, I think there was no one in the 25 of us in the dressing room that thought we could win the game,” he said.

He said the biggest task at hand was to assemble a team and then the rest would follow.

“You bring in players from all over the country, you get few training sessions and then you’ve got to put together a team.”