”Well worthwhile,” was the assessment of general manager Stanley ”Screamer” Tshabalala after Bafana Bafana’s work-out on Tuesday with German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen.
And despite the late appearance because of visa problems of captain Aaron Mokoena and top scorer Shaun Bartlett, a satisfied Tshabalala proclaimed the second day of preparation for Saturday’s crucial World Cup qualifying game against Burkina Faso as ”satisfying all-round”.
”The 1-1 score line in the practice game meant little,” said the Bafana general manager about the work-out against the team currently second in the Bundesliga, ”but coach Stuart Baxter was able to give all the players, apart from Moekoena and Bartlett, a runaround, and glean valuable information for the game in Burkina Faso”.
Tshabalala said the missing luggage which had prevented the team training on Monday had arrived in Bremen and.
”A point in question,” said Tshabalala, ”was the readiness of Werder Bremen to participate in a practice outing — something that was a lot more productive and motivating than a straight-forward training session”.
Bafana — with Mokoena and Bartlett this time included — will have their final training session in picturesque Bremen on Wednesday morning before leaving for Burkina Faso on a five-hour charter flight later in the day.
”And it looks as though we might be able to depart with a clean bill of health for all our players,” said Tshabalala.
Bafana return to Bremen for a friendly international against Germany next Wednesday — ”but everything is geared towards Burkina Faso at this stage,” added Tshabalala, ”and that is the game that will make-or-break the two-match trip”. – Sapa