Friendlies have a ‘dress rehearsal’ feel to them

BAFANA BAFANA’S match against Guinea Bissau in Durban today is a friendly in status only as competition for positions intensifies in the build up to the continental and World Cup qualifiers later this year.

This outing and Tuesday night’s friendly run against Angola in East London serve as warm-ups for the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifier away to Cape Verde in September. It means that although the side has a caretaker coach in Owen da Gama, whoever takes charge thereafter will rely on these games as a foundation to select the squad.

That was the view of senior players Dean Furman and Ramahlwe Mphahlele who said that as much as the coaches will experiment with combinations, it will be within the context of establishing firm partnerships for the qualifiers. No one could therefore afford to treat these matches lightly.

“The thinking behind opponents like Guinea Bissau is that they were a Portuguese colony; they’ve got most of their players plying their trade in the second division in Portugal, and so do our opponents on Tuesday,” said Da Gama.

“Angola is exactly the same. Cape Verde have got a lot of players playing in Portugal. There’s lots of synergy, a lot of similarities between the teams, and so I think it was a wise choice to get opponents who are alike,” said the stand-in coach.

Like Da Gama, Mphahlele and Furman highlighted it was vital to continue from where they left off in the World Cup qualifier win over Senegal in November.

“One of the things (Safa technical director) Neil Tovey said to us was to look at our home form. We have to start putting teams to bed here at home and make it a very difficult place for teams to come to. Winning breeds confidence and gets the fans behind us,” said Furman, one of three vice captains in the squad captained by goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune.

Mphahlele echoed those sentiments when he said he was fortunate to be selected given that other more experienced players like Anele Ngcongca were not in the squad.

Adding spice to the fight for places is the inclusion of youngsters like Phakamani Mahlambi, Luther Singh and Lorenzo Gordinho who will aim to make their debuts over the two assignments.