Bafana Bafana coach confident of victory
Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane believes injuries are hampering his training sessions after he was left without four players in the first part of the training camp.
Bafana Bafana is in camp ahead of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Sierra Leone. That match will be played on Saturday, 8 October 2011 at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, and kicks off at 17h00.
Lehlohonolo Majoro (groin), Bernard Parker (knee), Siyabonga Sangweni (athlete’s foot) and Lebohang Mokoena (hamstring) have been under medical treatment.
They all have returned to training.
The coach welcomed the arrival of overseas-based players, Bongani Khumalo of Reading FC in England and Thulani Serero of Ajax Amsterdam in Holland camp has boost the Bafana Bafana chance for this weekend clash Serero has a mild left groin injury, and missed his club’s weekend match, but has been declared fit for the camp after his team rested him for a few days.
The Belgium-based Siboniso Gaxa and Daylon Claasen, as well as Turkey-based Bradley Grobler have joined their compatriots in camp after landing on Monday Anele Ngcongca
“These players come from playing matches at their clubs, and then had to travel so it’s a bit of a heavy load and they won’t offer us much at training. We are left with no choice but to rest them, and help them regenerate well. So this means we will only be able to train together as a team starting yesterday (Tuesday, 4 October 2011),” said Mosimane.
The coach remains confident that his side will deliver positive results on Saturday.
“We are strong mentally and I remain confident that we will be ready for Sierra Leone. We know that Niger has first option in qualifying if they beat Egypt then they are in, South Africa has the second option while Sierra Leone has the third – in the event that Niger and South Africa don’t make it. But the only way for Sierra Leone to get anything is by playing an attacking game, which will open the match up a bit because our plan is to attack all the way to get a win. There is a bit of a pressure for everyone, but then again it goes with the territory and it should be the kind of pressure we should use to motivate ourselves,” added the coach.
Captain for this match, Siphiwe Tshabalala says the idea of not qualifying has not even crossed their minds.
“Things have gone according to plan at training and as players we are looking forward to this crucial match for both sides as they also stand a chance to qualify. But for us it’s a positive to be playing at home and we know that even though it’s going to be tough we are up for it. We should not think much about the other match because we can’t control what happens there but we know we in control of the results in our match so we have to do our job. It is important for us to qualify as we missed out on Angola 2010. I would like all the players to double their efforts to help the country qualify, and we are more positive than ever, so much we don’t even want to think about not qualifying,” said Tshabalala.
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