Shakes out to jack up his Bafana

THERE’S not much harm done with a draw as Bafana Bafana’s fate remains firmly in their own hands. But Polokwane served up a king-size anticlimax.

Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba, the national team coach, highlighted the frailties in South Africa’s goalless draw against Congo-Brazzaville in a clash that could have guaranteed qualification to the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco next year had Bafana been victorious.

But to quickly regroup, Mashaba said he had to take the positives and put in extra work to address the weakness – like his side’s failure to win and score at home during this qualifying campaign. The two Bafana wins have both come from away trips to Sudan last month and the same Congo in Pointe Noire last weekend.

“What we have realised as the technical team is that we need match-winners. The players we have selected in this team are the cream of the crop, but maybe if we keep looking and feel we have found others with the match intelligence to have killed this kind of game off, we can bring them in,” said Mashaba.

“The players did show they were anxious when they started playing long balls to find the wingers and maybe they had read in the papers that a win will help us qualify early.

“But we never talked about that because by right we should play six games in these qualifiers. We are also aware that playing at home is no longer a luxury. The players are more under pressure in front of their home crowd than they are when there’s not a lot of noise.”

The coach said he had also hoped the weather would be favourable, knowing that the rain would disrupt the way Bafana had prepared to tackle the physical Red Devils.

“I prayed that it wouldn’t rain because I know our players struggle in those kind of conditions. We are not disappointed at all with the result and we still say there’s no need to press any panic buttons because we still want to play for the remaining six points ,” said Mashaba.

He added that he was still working on trying to get his young team to be more vocal on the pitch. In Bafana’s opening two qualifiers, Mashaba said one of the reasons he had moved Anele Ngcongca from his natural right-back position to central defence was so that he could lead from the back. The Belgian-based defender was pulled  from the squad before the trip to Pointe Noire due to injury

“Most of the time the players aren’t talking and that is how they make mistakes. And Congo also improved from our first game. They realised we were quicker going forward and they kicked Thulani Serero out of the game,” Mashaba explained.