Youngsters get Bafana boost
DROPPING IN: MASHABA’S SQUAD PAY U17S A VISIT Silver lining as visa issues threatened to disrupt travel plans.
The derailment of Bafana Bafana’s travel arrangements was a blessing in disguise for the team’s Under-17 counterparts Amajimbos. Bafana had to abandon their initial plans to fly to Costa Rica via the US for tomorrow’s international friendly, because of visa issues. Instead, Shakes Mashaba’s side went via Brazil, where Amajimbos were in camp before the start of the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in Chile.
While in Brazil, Bafana managed to spare some time and visited the squad to give the youngsters some words of encouragement ahead of their World Cup campaign.
Shakes Mashaba’s Bafana could also do with some encouragement right now, after an awful start to their 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign. They are in Central America for two friendly matches, the first against Costa Rica (Friday, 4am SA time) and the second against Honduras on October 13.
Playing Costa Rica will be good practice, according to Mashaba, who finds himself under considerable pressure, with a two-leg 2018 World Cup qualifier against Angola coming up in November.
“The main idea is to try and gauge our level of performance. I also think it’s a good experience for us to play teams ranked above us like Costa Rica, because to continue improving, we must play and beat the best,” Mashaba said when he announced his squad.
The onlhy time Bafana played Costa Rica was in 2003 where they beat them 2-1 in a Nelson Mandela Challenge game in Potchefstroom. But so much has changed for both teams since then, with Bafana having switched coaches an incredible 10 times.
It will be interesting to see how Mashaba prepares for the games against Costa Rica and Honduras, having recently been heavily criticised for his failure to do proper homework on his opponents, which led to Bafana failing to beat minnows The Gambia and Mauritania in Afcon qualifying.
Mashaba has, however, asked for more patience and support, saying he understands that losing is hard to accept.
“I would like to appeal to the nation to rally behind the team. We know that sometimes it hurts to lose but we are rectifying that and hope to bring positive results,” he said.