Bafana Bafana warmed up for Saturday’s Cosafa Castle Cup semifinal against Swaziland with an emphatic 4-0 win over a Limpopo Schools X1 at the University of the North’s Oscar Mpetha stadium on Wednesday. There was no score at halftime.
Although the result was academic, head coach Shakes Mashaba was pleased with the outcome and the fact that his charges managed to score four goals and entertained the capacity 15 000 crowd who arrived in droves to watch their Bafana stars in action.
Orlando Pirates striker Lesley Manyathela opened the scoring in the 49th minute. His Bucs team-mate Jimmy Kauleza continued his rich vein of scoring form by netting in the 55th and 58th minutes while Bafana rookie Sisa Nombe weighed in with the fourth goal five minutes from time.
The squad have worked hard in the capital city of the Limpopo province this week and were boosted with the arrival in camp of Jomo Cosmos and World Cup midfielder Teboho Mokoena who returned on Tuesday night from a successful trial with three European clubs.
However, Mokoena said his future was on hold until after Saturday’s showdown at Polokwane’s Peter Mokaba stadium (3pm) when he will decide on which club he has decided to join. The only missing link is Kaizer Chiefs classy midfielder Jabu Pule who joins the squad today after a trial in France with First Division club Olympique Marseille.
”I must say things are looking up. But we must not get carried away. Swaziland while not as technically good as Bafana still pose a huge threat to our hopes of reaching the cup final for the first time. I have a plan up my sleeve,” said Mashaba who has told his players that places in the Bafana squad for the tough away trip to Abidjan for next month’s vital African Nations Cup qualifiers were up for grabs.
”Players are playing for their places. We know that the overseas based players will come into the picture but I have issued a challenge to the players and now the ball is in their court,” said Mashaba.
The head coach will also select his captain Thursday. The front runners are goalkeeper Andre Arendse (Santos), and defenders Matthew Booth (Sundowns) and Chiefs’ experienced wing back Cyril Nzama. Booth was the South African under-23 captain when Mashaba was in charge of the Olympic squad and could get the nod.
Arendse has captained Bafana on a number of occasions – most recently in the penalty shootout win over Madagascar in the quarterfinals, but he is not guaranteed a place in the starting line-up. Arendse who played at the World Cup finals in South Korea in June faces a stiff challenge form Chiefs, ‘keeper Brian Baloyi who is also no stranger to the national set-up.
Both according to goalkeeping coach Cyprian Maimang are in excellent condition: ”I would hate to choose between the two goalkeepers. They have worked extremely hard this week and have shown to be true professionals. One thing for sure is no matter who plays he will not let the side down.” – Sapa