‘SHAKES UNFIT TO COACH BAFANA’
BELEAGUERED Bafana Bafana coach Ephraim ‘‘Shakes” Mashaba faces a dressing-room mutiny as increasingly unhappy players begin to protest against his regime.
Such is the growing discontent that some players are seriously thinking about not turning up when Bafana resume their 2017 Africa Cup of Nations campaign and they have pleaded with the South African Football Association (Safa) to step in and resolve the looming crisis.
The players said they understood exactly where controversial midfielder Kamohelo Mokotjo was coming from after the outspoken Hollandbased player announced on his Instagram account this week that he would not make himself available to the national team as long as Mashaba remained coach.
Mokotjo was upset that he’s seen very little time on the pitch under Mashaba.
A Bafana player who asked to remain anonymous told Sunday Times that they’ve often approached games blind with little in the way of preparation and tactics.
The player said Mashaba was out of his depth and would be better served coaching the junior national teams.
‘‘There are games where we met as players and advised each other on how to handle the opposition,” he said.
‘‘Seriously! We would say ‘gents, let us just go out and do what we do at our clubs and take it from there’. We went into those games without the coach telling us anything as far as tactics are concerned.
‘‘Some of us are saying it’s becoming difficult to return to play for the national team because we are being treated like children here.”
Pressure has increased on Mashaba over the past few weeks as Bafana’s qualification for the Nations Cup hangs by a thread.
The team could be out of the race by June and the players said the current uncertainty can mostly be attributed to unhappiness with the coach’s regime rather than an inability to compete with the continent’s best national sides.
The players said they've been tripped by a lack of knowledge about the opposition on numerous occasions during the qualifiers, and Mashaba’s ‘‘old school way of coaching” did not help matters.
Another player said there was no element of surprise in the training sessions, saying they knew what to expect before they reported to camp.
He also complained about the team never working on defending set pieces, giving the example of how Bafana conceded from a free kick against Cameroon in Limbe.
“Another thing the guys are complaining about is that the training never changes. It’s always the same. There’s never something different. We know what’s coming,” he said.
“We should do set pieces because we do not train together [at club level]. Those tactics are crucial. In the morning we can train and maybe in the afternoon we can focus on set pieces because we are already fit from our clubs.”
The players also accused Mashaba of favouritism and they claimed it was this perception that motivated Mokotjo to take matters into his own hands and quit the national side.
“To be fair, [Mashaba] plays [Andile] Jali attacking and that’s his position [but] he plays most players out of position. Serero they play him left wing. When did you ever see Serero at left wing? You won’t get the best out of Serero . . . I respect him but he puts favourites before performance.
Kamo is No 1 with assists in Holland. But he doesn’t even taste 10 or 25 min on the pitch (sic).”
Another Bafana player went as far as saying he was considering his Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.sundaytimes.co.za options as he was no longer motivated to honour his call ups.
The player said there was a distance between themselves and Safa and they wouldn’t have approached the media if they were able to communicate with the association.
‘‘We want Safa to understand what we are going through and if it means coming forward and talking to you guys [the media] then so be it. This needs to be resolved because it is going to become a bigger problem if Safa does not attend to it.”
Bafana Bafana have two Afcon qualifiers against Gambia and Mauritania and those are crucial matches.
Safa communications boss Dominic Chimhavi said they were reluctant to entertain any discussion about Mashaba and the national team from unnamed sources.
“Any evaluation with regards to the way forward will only be done at the end of the Afcon and World Cup qualifiers and doing so now is not only illadvised but unnecessary,” he said.
Another player said the national team should be a place of higher learning that gave players a superior understanding of the game. ‘‘But instead you come to the national team without learning anything. How can this be? You expect to learn something new when you go to the national team but that is not the case.” GOTCHA: Thabo Qalinge, middle, of Orlando Pirates is challenged by Bokang Tlhone, left, and Nhlanhla Vilakazi of Free State Stars during their Absa Premiership match at Orlando Stadium in Soweto yesterday
On the half-hour mark, Ndoro beat the offside trap but Mathole came out to smother his opportunity but the ball rolled free for Luvuyo Memela who, went tumbling down under a challenge as he looked to sweep home the rebound.
Pirates captain Thabo Matlaba then hit the upright with a powerful shot at the end of a freeflowing move that saw Pirates move the ball between five players with consummate ease.
The second half died off quickly as the battle was restricted to the midfield but the game woke up again in the final quarter-hour as Mhlongo made a brilliant onehanded stop to deny Danny Venter an equaliser.
Stars could have scored as well through Justice Chabalala in a last-minute melee but his snap effort was blocked.
“For the way we played, we did not deserve to the lose the game and this is disappointing but it is how it happens in football,” said Stars coach Giovanni Solinas, whose club last won away at Pirates 21 years ago.