SHAKES CALLS PITSO TO ORDER
Downs men check in with Bafana
BAFANA Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba has told Pitso Mosimane to put in a formal request to have Mamelodi Sundowns players withdrawn from the national team.
There is no love lost between the two coaches, and Mashaba seemed to throw down the gauntlet to his colleague yesterday by suggesting he should know better than speak to him through the media.
Seeing that Bafana’s match against Mauritania at Mbombela Stadium on Friday (7.05pm) is a dead rubber and their next one is a friendly against Egypt, Mosimane publicly asked for his players to be excused from the national camp on the basis of a tough schedule that includes the CAF Champions League.
Mashaba has called up Hlompho Kekana, Tebogo Langerman, Thapelo Morena, Sibusiso Vilakazi and Keagan Dolly for the two matches.
Dolly played every minute at the Olympics in Rio and Mosimane is concerned that the player may be fatigued. But the quintet all reported to Bafana’s camp yesterday and departed for Mbombela later in the afternoon, in what was a clear indication that Mashaba had ignored Mosimane’s plea.
“Well, unfortunately nothing has come to us. We are operating on an open-door policy and if there is anyone who wants to talk to us, [he or she] can come to us,” said Mashaba before departure for Mpumalanga yesterday.
“Until that thing [the request] comes to us, we can’t comment. If they want to request something, let them send it and then we will sit down, deal with it and give feedback.”
As Bafana coach in 2012, Mosimane decided not to call up Pirates players for an international friendly against Senegal, when the Buccaneers were due to play Angolan club Recreativo de Libolo in the CAF Champions League preliminary round.
His successor, Gordon Igesund, excused six Pirates players from his squad in 2013 because they had to play a crucial group match against Zamalek in the Champions League. Bafana were playing against Nigeria on August 14 and the Buccaneers were due to play the Egyptian giants three days later.
“I like to keep my distance. When I was Bafana coach, we played a friendly against Ivory Coast [in fact Senegal], a big one. I did not select Pirates players because they were playing in the Champions League. Gordon [Igesund] did the same. It’s a no-brainer,” said Mosimane.
SHAKES Mashaba’s media briefing yesterday started off rather negatively but the coach also shared some positive thoughts about Bafana Bafana after the disappointment of failing to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
Bafana will round off their Afcon qualifiers against Mauritania at Mbombela Stadium on Friday (7.05pm).
But before Mashaba outlined what he intended to get out of this dead-rubber fixture since the team has failed to qualify, he once again had a bone to pick with the media. The 68-year-old had taken offence to an opinion piece published in one of the Sunday newspapers at the weekend.
“Stop calling me arrogant, that’s an insult. And you are saying Shakes is arrogant and you don’t say why he is arrogant. If you write things about me, clarify them because you are giving a wrong impression to people. Write what you like, but it must be genuine,” he said.
Mashaba did admit that there were lessons to be learnt from the failed Afcon campaign. He appeared to have renewed hope that the future of the national team was bright with the under-23 boys in the squad. Some of the new faces are Abbubaker Mobara, 22, Gift Motupa, 21, Thapelo Morena, 23, Deolin Mekoa, 23, Aubrey Modiba, 21, and Denwin Farmer, 19.
“I normally say yesterday, today and tomorrow won’t be the same. What happened yesterday should be our yardstick going forward,” he said.
“I mean, we have qualified for how many World Cups? Four [in fact three, including the one SA hosted in 2010] and in all, we were dropping [out] in the first round. We need to think how do we go forward to rectify that, so let’s bring in young blood. That is what we are looking for.”
After the clash against Mauritania, Bafana will face Egypt in the Nelson Mandela Challenge at Orlando Stadium next Tuesday.