Johannesburg - Bafana Bafana are trying to rekindle the memories of their successful 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, when they take on Gambia at Moses Mabhida Stadium, in Durban, on Saturday.
For the 2015 edition, coach Shakes Mashaba’s troops qualified with a game to spare and the 2017 tournament presents an entirely new challenge.
“In the 2015 AFCON qualifiers everybody was willing to go because of the opposition (South Africa was drawn against Nigeria, Sudan and Congo), but now everyone thinks of Gambia and Mauritania and ask who are those?” said Mashaba on Friday.
“Those people (Gambia) have about ten overseas-based players in their squad. They are playing away, they might come here, park the bus and be happy with a point, so it’s a big task for us to dismantle that defence,” said Mashaba.
In the last qualifiers, two teams qualified from each group for the tournament but this time around it is different.
“This is going to be very tricky and perhaps more difficult. It is important that we win all our home games and ensure we even do well on the road. Crucially we need to score goals because in the end goal difference might see us through. If we find Gambia open at the back we need to score as much as possible - at the end of the qualifiers you might have two nations deadlocked on points and the goal difference could come in handy,” added Mashaba.
Goalkeeper Brilliant Khuzwayo is a doubtful starter as he is still recovering from a bout of flu - he sat out the final training session.
Bafana will also face Gambia without the services of striker Tokelo Rantie who has asked to be withdrawn from the squad due wedding to celebrations - this leaves strikers Thamsanqa Gabuza (who replaces Rantie), Vuyisile Wana, Bonginkosi Ntuli, Gift Motupa and Sphelele Ntshangase as options upfront.
“We want to take the game to Gambia on Saturday and see their reaction, but if we’re going to run like headless chickens we will be punished. If a team scores a goal when playing away, it becomes a double task to even matters,” said Mashaba.
“If you look at our midfielders they are very pacy and quick on the ball which will make our lives easy, because we will be having players who will add numbers in attack and also when we defend. We can only hope that the strikers that we play there, because all of them are new in the team, will come to the party.”
Gambia landed in South African on Wednesday after playing to a 1-all draw against Uganda. This is Gambia’s first match in South Africa against Bafana.
The Scorpions, as the Gambia national football team is known, have just recently returned to the international arena. They played the qualifiers for the 2013 tournament in South Africa but lost to Algeria.
In the preliminary rounds of the 2015 qualifiers, they were drawn against the Seychelles but Gambia were kicked out before the match was played due to age cheating in their under-20 side at the African Youth Championship.
ANA