Barring complacency on the part of the Bafana Bafana players, the Council of Southern African Football Association (Cosafa) Cup will be coming to South Africa at last on Saturday.
After four years of failure in the regional competition, Bafana Bafana are on the brink of clinching the title as a result of their 3-1 thrashing of Malawi in Blantyre last weekend. They can finally extinguish the Flames with a good performance in Durban on Saturday.
The quality of football on display last week was at times less than distinguished — but new coach Shakes Mashaba was pleased with the scoreline. Having done the hard work in Malawi, his team can now turn on the style in front of their home supporters.
If Malawi can surprise everyone and overturn the deficit, the game will go into extra time and then a penalty shoot-out. It is far more likely that Mashaba will pick up his first major trophy at the end of 90 minutes.
However, this time around Bafana Bafana are unlikely to benefit from the generosity of the Flames goalkeeper — as Navigator Dzinkanbani, whose mistakes gifted Patrick Mayo his pair of goals and Jimmy Kauleza his first international goal, has been replaced.
The South African midfielders will also have to pull up their socks, as — with the exception of Japhet Zwane — they performed indifferently in the first game. Bafana Bafana will be without Thabang Molefe, who did a sterling job of man-marking Essau Kanyenda, and his replacement will be Pirates Lucky Legkwathi. Another player who needs a pat on the back is Mbulelo Mabizela, who saved a goal-bound ball with a bicycle kick off the line.
In his first few games in charge Mashaba has chopped and changed the squad but, with the pressure off, Saturday’s game is an ideal opportunity to alter this policy to get players to start to gel.
In addition to the goalkeeper, Malawi have also dropped defender Peter Mponda, striker Steve Bakali and right back Lackson Mtambo for their lacklustre displays last week. Uncapped under-23 striker Russel Mwafulirwa, who scored in the All Africa Games qualifying match against the South African under-23 team last Sunday, gets his chance in the senior team.
Malawi’s man to watch will again be Kanyenda — who was prepared to die on the field of play for his team. But the Malawi defence will have to be at their best if they are to stop a barrage of goals from Mayo and Kauleza.
” South Africa will play a friendly against England in Durban on May 22 next year.