South Africa’s build-up to their African Nations Championship qualifier against Mauritius at the Dobsonville Stadium today could scarcely have been more chaotic with coaches Shakes Mashaba still scratching around for players 24 hours before kick-off.The squad have barely trained this week with only 11 players in camp up until yesterday afternoon, and two of them goalkeepers.
It shows a further breakdown in relations between the national team and Premier Soccer League clubs, who were in no mood to spare their stars for an extra few days for the Mauritius clash.
Only Orlando Pirates can have legitimate claims to needing their stars back as they prepare for a CAF Confederation Cup tie against AC Leopards in Congo next Saturday.
Only two defenders have been in camp this week since the 2-1 victory over Angola on Tuesday – left-back Marc van Heerden and Pirates’ Tshepo Gumede, who is not registered for their CAF competition squads.
Reinforcements have been sent for but with just one training session ahead of the match that was scheduled for yesterday afternoon, Mashaba will be desperate just to get through this match and move on.
Though he will likely find it harder to assemble a squad for the return in Mauritius in a fortnight’s time with PSL clubs well and truly into their pre-season preparations by then.
South Africa have not lost an African Nations Championship qualifier since 2008 when a ragtag selection were beaten 3-0 on aggregate by Zimbabwe in the preliminaries.
They were also due to meet Mauritius in an earlier round that year, but were awarded the tie via walkover after their island opponents pulled out.
They overcame Botswana and Zambia to qualify for the 2011 finals in Sudan, where they reached the quarterfinals, and were hosts of the third running of the finals last year.
Mauritius are coming off a 7-1 humiliation in Ghana in their African Nations Cup qualifier last weekend, but the advantage they have over Bafana Bafana is that their squad has at least remained intact this week.
The country were poor in the recent Cosafa Cup tournament staged in and around Rustenburg.
South Africa have met Mauritius on 11 previous occasions and have in fact suffered a defeat in that time.
That came in the first match after Mashaba was axed as Bafana coach in his first spell with the team in January 2004 when Mauritius triumphed 2-0 in the Cosafa Cup first round with the late Styles Phumo hastily placed in charge of the team.
Otherwise Bafana have seven wins and three draws from the 11 games, with the most recent meeting also in the Cosafa Cup in 2007 when Teko Modise netted a brace in a 2-0 win.
This 12th meeting between the clubs means Mauritius move level with Nigeria as Bafana’s third most frequent opponent since 1992.
The odds stacked against Mashaba
It shows a further breakdown in relations between the national team and Premier Soccer League clubs, who were in no mood to spare their stars for an extra few days for the Mauritius clash.
Only Orlando Pirates can have legitimate claims to needing their stars back as they prepare for a CAF Confederation Cup tie against AC Leopards in Congo next Saturday.
Only two defenders have been in camp this week since the 2-1 victory over Angola on Tuesday – left-back Marc van Heerden and Pirates’ Tshepo Gumede, who is not registered for their CAF competition squads.
Reinforcements have been sent for but with just one training session ahead of the match that was scheduled for yesterday afternoon, Mashaba will be desperate just to get through this match and move on.
Though he will likely find it harder to assemble a squad for the return in Mauritius in a fortnight’s time with PSL clubs well and truly into their pre-season preparations by then.
South Africa have not lost an African Nations Championship qualifier since 2008 when a ragtag selection were beaten 3-0 on aggregate by Zimbabwe in the preliminaries.
They were also due to meet Mauritius in an earlier round that year, but were awarded the tie via walkover after their island opponents pulled out.
They overcame Botswana and Zambia to qualify for the 2011 finals in Sudan, where they reached the quarterfinals, and were hosts of the third running of the finals last year.
Mauritius are coming off a 7-1 humiliation in Ghana in their African Nations Cup qualifier last weekend, but the advantage they have over Bafana Bafana is that their squad has at least remained intact this week.
The country were poor in the recent Cosafa Cup tournament staged in and around Rustenburg.
South Africa have met Mauritius on 11 previous occasions and have in fact suffered a defeat in that time.
That came in the first match after Mashaba was axed as Bafana coach in his first spell with the team in January 2004 when Mauritius triumphed 2-0 in the Cosafa Cup first round with the late Styles Phumo hastily placed in charge of the team.
Otherwise Bafana have seven wins and three draws from the 11 games, with the most recent meeting also in the Cosafa Cup in 2007 when Teko Modise netted a brace in a 2-0 win.
This 12th meeting between the clubs means Mauritius move level with Nigeria as Bafana’s third most frequent opponent since 1992.
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