Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane says his players are well aware of the task at hand.
|||Pitso Mosimane predicted on Friday that South Africa would have a weekend of celebration, in spite of his Bafana Bafana and the national rugby side facing treacherous fixtures on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Mosimane foresees a long evening of partying if Bafana overcome Sierra Leone and qualify for the African Nations Cup this evening, with the festivities continuing long into the morning should the Springboks beat Australia in Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final.
“I hope we’ll have a nice weekend, with us having qualified and the Boks making it too,” Mosimane said after Bafana’s final training session at the Mbombela Stadium, the venue for this afternoon’s fixture against the Leone Stars (5pm).
Merely winning this Group G fixture is no guarantee of a party and a ticket to Equatorial Guinea/Gabon next year for Bafana, however, as their fate also depends on the outcome of the Egypt-Niger tie in Cairo.
Mosimane reiterated he’ll not keep his players informed of events in Cairo. “That’s a no-no. We have to focus on winning our game. That’s the only way we can qualify.”
The Bafana coach added he won’t be drumming into the players’ heads the magnitude of the job at hand. “There’s not a lot I can tell the players about the significance of this game. They know what’s expected of them. They know we have to win. They know their families, friends and all South Africans will be expecting a win. Most importantly they want to go to the Nations Cup. They deserve to be there because of the progress they’ve made over the last year,” Mosimane said.
He conceded, however, that tension had increased in his camp as Saturday’s moment of truth looms. “These players are human beings and it’s normal that their stress levels would be high for a match like this. Nobody can be relaxed when you’re in this situation where the entire country has high expectations. But again, these guys are professionals and should be able to handle this pressure. They have a big challenge but we can’t turn it into fear.”
Bad news for Bafana was that Thulani Serero again broke down during training, a day after he had participated in a full session and had looked set to start. Serero left the field and was seen covering his groin area with an ice pack. The prognosis on the Ajax Amsterdam man changed for the worse on Friday, with Mosimane saying “I don’t see him being there” on Saturday.
“If we had three or more days Serero would be okay. I want to be positive but realistically, for this game you need players who are 100 percent fit. You can’t play someone who is 50 percent because you may be forced to waste a substitution.”
Serero’s expected withdrawal should open up a space for Bernard Parker to start alongside Katlego Mphela in attack.
Mosimane’s most interesting selection should be in midfield where, in training this week, he persisted with the combination of Daylon Claasen, Andile Jali, Thanduyise Khuboni and Siphiwe Tshabalala, raising speculation that the returning Reneilwe Letsholonyane might have to come off the bench.
Made aware of comments attributed to Sierra Leone coach Lars-Olof Mattson that he hardly knows even a single player in the current Bafana set-up, Mosimane fired back: “It’s good that he doesn’t know us, but I know all their players. I respect them, that’s why I know them. Hopefully when we win he’ll get to know us.”
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/pitso-we-know-what-we-need-to-do-1.1153110
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