Tefu Mashamaite says Shakes Mashaba will not allow any complacency to creep into his squad.
Their spot at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals secured, Bafana Bafana flew out to Nigeria to complete their qualification matches with “nothing to play for”.
Mashamaite, however, refuted suggestions that the squad might take things easy in tomorrow evening’s clash knowing that they will be going to Equatorial Guinea next year.
“Coach Shakes won’t let us be lackadaisical or relax,” Mashamaite said yesterday after the team’s training session at the Nike Centre in Pimville, Soweto. “We still have a job to do and he will want us to do it professionally, that’s the kind of coach he is.”
Following Saturday’s 2-1 win over Sudan in Durban, this group of Bafana has ended an embarrassing spell that has seen South Africa last participate at the biennial, continental soccer showpiece through proper qualification in 2008.
And Mashamaite says their booking a ticket to the 2015 event has all to do with the camaraderie that Mashaba has fostered into the squad.
“Ours has always been about team unity. I don’t know if this is the right thing to say, but this is a group of no-name players. There are no egos in this squad.”
And they are not about to become big-headed on account of having succeeded where their more renowned predecessors have previously failed.
As they prepared to take on the defending African champions who desperately need the victory if they are to compete in the January to February tournament, Mashamaite spoke of the squad’s understanding of what their approach should be.
“We know that Nigeria will be desperate. But the mistake we can make is to think about the pressure Nigeria are under. All we have to do is focus on ourselves and play our normal game.”
Their game might not be that normal though as Mashaba hinted at ringing some changes to the team that made the country proud at the Moses Mabhida Stadium at the weekend.
“We’ll have one or two changes but we won’t break the rhythm of the team that we’ve already created,” Mashaba explained.
“But in the middle we need to keep things tight because Nigeria are very good in midfield.”
With nothing to lose though, the coach is likely to give young Fagrie Lackay his first match in the senior national side.
Mashaba coached the Santos youngster in the Under-20 side that earned qualification for the Africa Youth Championships and has had him in his squad for the qualifiers.
Should he get to play, Lackay will replace another Capetonian youngster – Rivaldo Coetzee – as the youngest player ever to don a Bafana shirt.
Coetzee, who has since established himself as a permanent fixture of the team in the heart of defence, became the country’s youngest capped player at senior level when he made his debut away to Congo Brazzaville last month, four days short of his 18th birthday.
But that record is now in danger with Lackay nearly seven months younger than Coetzee.
The Santos player is just pleased to have been a part of the squad that has entered itself into history books. “Obviously it’s great to be able to say I was part of the South African national teams that qualified for the continental tournament,” said the youngster in reference to the Under-20 and Bafana’s feats. “It means South African football is doing something right.”
And as Mashamaite puts it, being level-headed is among those right things they are doing. - The Star