Cape Town - Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba says his Nigerian counterpart Stephen Keshi will be desperate to get one over his team after being snubbed for the Bafana job, and that his players must be ready for a fight at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night.
Keshi was one of the favourites for the South African coaching job along with Mashaba and former Portugal and Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz. But on Wednesday night he will be in the Super Eagles’ dugout when the teams clash in an African Cup of Nations qualifier (kickoff 8pm).
“Their coach is going to fight, because he believes he should have been coach of the South African team. He is going to try to use all his psychological tactics to make sure that all his players follow his instructions,” Mashaba said on Monday after a gruelling training session at Athlone Stadium.
Keshi hasn’t renewed his contract after the West African giants were knocked out in the second round of the World Cup in Brazil. He agreed to take charge of the African champions’ first two matches of the qualifiers while considering his options.
Nigeria started off their qualifying campaign with a 3-2 home defeat against an impressive and energetic Congo side. The Nigerian players’ body language didn’t look good. They seemed to be really grumpy when things didn’t go their way. The uncertainty surrounding Keshi’s future, as well as the possible Fifa ban hanging over the team, seem to be having an effect on the their morale going into such an important match.
On the other hand, Bafana are coming off a famous 3-0 away win in Sudan and everybody in the camp seems to have a smile on their faces and a spring in their step.
Mashaba, though, is not so sure that the Super Eagles will be like clay pigeons, ready to be picked off. “I don’t think the cloud surrounding his (Keshi’s) future will unsettle them on the bench or the players on the field. All the players like him, and I don’t think they would have settled for a new coach for this kind of match,” Mashaba said.
“That Congo team is good. But when the score was 3-1, those Nigerians shifted to a higher gear and they were unfortunate not to equalise. That’s why, from the first whistle, they will throw everything at us. They know losing to Congo and South Africa will make their chances of defending their title very slim. That will make them dangerous. They are going to fight.”
Mashaba’s youngsters were excellent against Sudan, showing plenty of character and bottle in hot and intimidating conditions at the Al Merreikh Stadium in Odurman. Many Bafana teams, even the most experienced ones, have failed to close out matches against technically inferior players away from home. So the mental boost this young team will have going into a match against the old foe is going to be a massive factor.
Mashaba will probably make a few tweaks to his line-up after the taxing trip and the short turnaround. One of those changes is likely to be in midfield, where two-goal hero Sibusiso Vilakazi could come into the starting line-up for either Keagan Dolly or Mandla Masango, who looked a bit lost in the heat of battle against Sudan. However, the coach will first have to monitor Andile Jali’s injury before making that call. The former Orlando Pirates man was outstanding against Sudan. He ran his socks off for the cause and allowed the likes of Vilakazi to run riot in the opposition’s half in the second stanza.
Jali didn’t train with the team on Monday and also didn’t feature in the friendly against Santos on Sunday. But he did have a brisk jog around the Athlone Stadium pitch, which is a good sign for Mashaba.
The Bafana coach is also managing his players carefully ahead of the match. They consumed a lot fluid before the game against Sudan to cope with the heat and to rehydrate before the clash against Nigeria.
“It’s a slight knock and Jali is being assessed. In the warm-ups we allowed him to kick the ball. But we didn’t want to risk him in the practice against the other players,” Mashaba said. “That plane in the trip to Sudan was full of water and that helped the players a lot.
“We played well in that heat and I was surprised that they were the stronger in the first half. I still have another training session to make up my mind about the team. We can only hope that we have a full squad to choose from for the match.”
Cape Times