The Mercury

Komphela: Where are Bafana’s strikers

- MINENHLE MKHIZE minenhle.mkhize@inl.co.za

BAFANA Bafana boss, Molefi Ntseki, is set to announce his squad to face Sao Tome and Principe in back to back Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers tomorrow but the key question is who will he call to lead the attack for the senior national team?

Former Bafana assistant coach, Steve Komphela, feels for Ntseki because of a lack of natural goalscorer­s in the country.

Back in the days, the likes of Clive Barker, Jomo Sono and Trott Moloto were spoiled for choice in terms of strikers to choose from.

But that is not the case in the current generation according to Komphela.

“Goalscorer­s, I don’t know where they are but they are nowhere to be found.

“We need to get them, they are not there.

“At Chiefs who are the strikers? They are all foreign (Leonardo Castro, Samir Nurkovic, Khama Billiat and Lazarus Nkambole) except (Lebo) Manyama. Orlando Pirates are led by a foreigner (Gabadinho Mhango).

“At Bidvest Wits, it is Gift Motupa but the coach (Gavin Hunt) was complainin­g that he has scored only two goals.

“At SuperSport United there’s Bradley Grobler,” Komphela explained.

Percy Tau, Lebo Mothiba and Grobler are likely to lead the frontline for Bafana when they look to collect six points against Sao Tome.

“Then you had (the late) Phil Masinga, Duncan Crowie and Mark Williams. I don’t want to talk about the likes of Fani Madida. You were spoilt for choice.

“You had Shaun Bartlett, it was strikers all over. Where are these strikers?

“He (Ntseki) is going to suffer because he has got a qualifier and he doesn’t have a striker or he gets a striker from a modest team where he is not used to (playing under) pressure. He identifies the player and goes to the national team and the pressure there is immense,” he added.

The Premier Soccer League top scorer is Mhango with 14 goals. He is followed by Bongi Ntuli of AmaZulu and Grobler of SuperSport.

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