When you are the Bafana Bafana coach, you have no option but to be grateful for small mercies. However, even the news on Monday that Stuart Baxter will be able to select players from Kaizer Chiefs, Bloemfontein Celtic, Moroka Swallows and Supersport United for next week’s Cosafa Cup semifinal against Zambia in Mmabatho still had a backlash.
Because of the embarrassing clash of the Cosafa Cup semifinals and final on the same weekend as the launch of the SAA Supa8 tournament, it had initially been feared that Bafana’s line-up would be devoid of players from Chiefs, Celtic, Swallows and Supersport, as well as those from Orlando Pirates, Silver Stars, Mamelodi Sundowns and Ajax Cape.
But in announcing the dates of the first-round fixtures at the launch of the Supa8 tournament on Monday, the Premier Soccer League revealed that only two of the four games will be played on the weekend of August 13 and 14 — thereby effectively freeing players from the teams who are playing a week later to represent a Bafana squad who will, in any case, be without any of the top overseas-based players.
And Baxter, no doubt, will readily agree that in these circumstances half a loaf is a good deal better than none at all, even though players from Pirates, Sundowns, Silver Stars and Ajax will still, in the main, be absentees in Mmabatho.
Those who might now come into contention for the Zambia game include Calvin Marlin, Ricardo Katza, Phil Evans and Lungisani Ndlela (Supersport); Rowen Fernandez (Kaizer Chiefs); Siyabonga Nkosi (Bloemfontein Celtic); and Peter Petersen and Alfred Phiri (Swallows) — giving the Bafana squad a far healthier complexion. — Sapa