A prestige friendly against Spain at Soccer City on Tuesday November 19 presents an opportunity to inject some much-needed cash into the South African Football Association's coffers but also falls into a chasm, coming at a time of some flux for Bafana Bafana.
The timing of the game is disappointingly inconsequential as South Africa's immediate vista required little, or none, of the experience that playing against the world champions would give them. The team is not World Cup-bound after the disappointment and embarrassment of falling to underachievers Ethiopia in the qualifiers for Brazil 2014.
There is no competitive action schedule for Bafana Bafana until September next year, when the qualifiers for the next Nations Cup start.
Of course, it is churlish to suggest playing Spain is a meaningless exercise. The rare chance to see some of the greats of modern times will be an undoubted delight for the growing connoisseurs of the Spanish game among South African football fans.
Xavi, Iniesta and others remain at the cutting edge of the modern game and the symbolism of a return to the stadium where they consecrated their greatness in mid-2010 has been seized on as a marketing tool to sell tickets for the match.
Rarely has Safa been this diligent in trying to persuade the public to attend, seeking to avoid the potential embarrassment of a mediocre turnout.
South Africa should have more of these prestige friendlies, even if only to build up an image of a preferred destination for some of the world's top teams. It keeps the World Cup stadiums in use, energises fans and injects glamour into the local game. But it is not the same as competitive ties in the framework of the World Cup or Nations Cup.
The squad picked by Gordon Igesund is, he says, a selection of possible players for the 2015 African Nations Cup finals, and he has, therefore, left out form players such as Reneilwe Letsholonyane and Rooi Mahamutsa, who are considered too old.
It is the latest tactic for a coach who has taken the team in several different directions of late but never seems to settle on a conviction, swaying rather to whims of public opinion.
Just three months ago, Igesund was pontificating about the need for exciting young locally based players to be given international exposure and fielded in such matches in order to increase the reservoir of talent.
But when a motley collection of undercooked locals were beaten at home by Zimbabwe, Igesund quickly abandoned the idea and went back to the tried and tested.
There is also the absurdity of the selection policy for the game on Friday November 15 in Swaziland, where Igesund selected a side of locally based players he says he hopes to use at January's African Nations Championship.
But it is a tournament that does not oblige clubs to release players for international duty and it is highly unlikely any Premier Soccer League clubs will give up key members for three weeks at the same time as the second half of the league season gets under way.
Igesund and Safa have no deal in place for the coach to be able to select the best PSL players for the tournament (hosted in Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Polokwane from January 11 to February 1), yet he picked nine players alone from Orlando Pirates for the trip to Swaziland.
This is fruitless – and either totally naive or a calculated gambit. Either way, it demonstrates an expedient selection policy that is not focused but seems designed to counter a possible public relations backlash or controversy.
Igesund and Safa need to settle on a less haphazard policy around the national team so games like those against Swaziland and Spain, at opposite ends of the Fifa rankings, provide the same group of players with the chance to gain experience. After all, the calendar allows for only infrequent opportunity to get the national side together – but if the parameters are forever changing, then future success is harder to attain.
Spain would have been debuting in Johannesburg the Brazil-born Diego Costa but he has conveniently picked up an injury as the storm over his selection gathers.
Coach Vicente del Bosque has had to defend his decision to call up the 25-year-old, who was offered a lukewarm welcome by Spanish fans who are not convinced of the need of a naturalised Brazilian in their squad.
Twenty goals in all competitions for Atletico Madrid last season, and 16 in 17 appearances this campaign, have catapulted him out of obscurity with his partnership with David Villa – whom Barcelona sold in mid-year – at the heart of his sudden accession.
"I don't understand how someone with the quality that Diego has could be negative for us," Del Bosque told reporters. "He will give us many possibilities in attack." But he pulled out of the trip, which will see Spain stop off in their former colony Equatorial Guinea on the way to Johannesburg, after injury at the weekend.
The strikers set to take on Bafana will be Villa, Alvaro Negredo and Barcelona forward Pedro – a daunting prospect for the home defence.