The nucleus of Bafana Bafana’s top stars on Wednesday joined the squad in Durban for Saturday’s decisive African Nations Cup qualifier against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as scheduled — prompting the dry comment from general manager Stanley ”Screamer” Tshabalala that for sections of the media ”good news is no news”.
”Yes, captain Aaron Mokoena, Benni McCarthy, Hans Vonk, Steven Pienaar, Sibusiso Zuma and Elrio van Heerden have joined the 12 players who arrived on Monday,” said Tshabalala, ”with only Siyabonga Nomvete and Nkosinathi Nhleko still to come on Wednesday because of flight difficulties from Scandinavia.
”But everything is running smoothly,” he added, ”and this is the best overall response we have had from the players for a long time regarding pre-match preparation.”
He said indications are the players are fully aware of the significance and importance of Satuday’s game and will be ”suitably motivated” for a match South Africa must draw to ensure qualification for the African Nations Cup tournament in Egypt early next year.
Tshabalala said rumours that a number of Bafana’s leading players will announce their retirement from international soccer after the DRC clash is mainly speculation at this moment — apart from South Africa’s most capped player, Shaun Bartlett.
”Shaun has indicated he has had a long run in the international arena and if he makes his 75th international appearance on Saturday, it could be his last. But we’ve heard these kind of sentiments before, only for the decisions to be reversed — and we’ll just have to wait and see.
In spite of this, there appears a strong suspicion that a number of South Africa’s high-profile, European-based players are reluctant to play in the African Nations Cup tournament in January and February because it could jeopardise their club careers — and ”retirements”, albeit only of a temporary nature in some instances, are on the cards. — Sapa