Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba was full of regrets yesterday prior to the national team’s departure for their penultimate Africa Cup of Nations qualifier away to Gambia on Saturday.
He knows the narrative could have been different if his men were clinical enough and took their chances against the same opponents nearly a year ago in Durban.
Now Bafana have a slim chance - if any - of booking their ticket to the continental competition in Gabon next year after a disastrous run of results in the opening two matches.
“I have always said that we fluffed it in the first two games (a goalless draw against Gambia and a 3-1 defeat away to lowly Mauritania) and hence we find ourselves in this position,” Mashaba lamented. Bafana are third in their group, which also includes leaders Cameroon, a side that all but ended their hopes of participating in the Afcon following back-to-back draws in March. Mashaba is holding on to the false optimism that they can beat Gambia this weekend and Mauritania in September to qualify by virtue of finishing as the best-runners up from 13 groups.
“I don’t think we did our homework properly for those two games.
“We just thought they will come like other teams we have faced in the past. I think we are ready for upcoming competitions (2018 World Cup qualifiers) and the base for selection that we have since we took over this team shows we are definitely on course,” he explained.
It’s been refreshing hearing the coach and his technical team own up to their mistakes in the two earlier games in the group, more especially the Nouakchott debacle, where Bafana were humiliated by minnows Mauritania in September last year.
Mashaba all but admitted he had urged his men, who will spend a night in Senegal before making their way to Bakau in Gambia, to play for pride and their future selection in upcoming qualifiers for the World Cup in Russia in two years time.
“We have to do our best now and make sure we collect maximum points, which is rather unfortunate because we have to then sit back and watch what is going to happen,” the coach said.
“But we brought this on ourselves and will have to wait on others to help us. Anything is possible. I was surprised by what I saw in the morning session because I thought the players will all be tired after travelling and it being the end of the season. We didn’t expect much, but they are aware of our commitments in these qualifiers.”
Mashaba also confirmed that left-back Thabo Matlaba had withdrawn from the squad due to personal reasons, but a replacement was not on the cards because it would take too long to arrange a visa. This leaves the national team coach with Sifiso Hlanti and Tebogo Langerman as the two options in that position, but given the nature of the game, that might be sufficient.
Bafana will play Gambia on Saturday with kick-off scheduled for 7pm SA time.
@superjourno - The Star