Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba on Thursday looked to a blast from the past to help the national team sail into the future by picking Daine Klate as part of his 25-man squad to face Senegal in a crucial 2018 World Cup qualifier next month.
Klate, the country’s most decorated player with 12 domestic cup winners’ medals in his club career to date, has been difficult to ignore after he was a candidate for the Footballer of the Year last season and helped Bidvest Wits to the MTN8 title when they beat Mamelodi Sundowns in the final three weeks ago. His selection, however, once again highlights the notion that Klate, 31, has only ever been good enough at SuperSport United, Orlando Pirates and now Wits, failing to bring the same experience and pedigree to international football.
“I can’t speak to that because I wasn’t there when he was selected by other coaches,” Mashaba said. “We have a problem in our team and that is wing play. We don’t get enough balls into the box and we need a specialist. We have seen him (Klate) doing this for Wits and we want those combinations, and hopefully he can bring goals as well because he is able to take shots at goal. Whether he underperformed in the past when he was selected, I can’t speak to that. But we have selected him for a reason and we hope he can solve our problem.”
Klate last featured for Bafana in a dead-rubber World Cup qualifier in September 2013 under then coach Gordon Igesund when the national team thumped Botswana 4-1, but could not qualify for the global showpiece in Brazil. Even then, the five-times Premier League winner (three titles with SuperSport and two with Pirates) only managed two minutes on the pitch and has only amassed 13 appearances in a Bafana jersey, scoring just one goal.
You’d think people are talking about two different players when his club record is compared to that of his time in the national team. Since making his Bafana debut as a teenager in July 2005 against Guatemala in the CONCACAF Gold Cup held in the US, with Stuart Baxter as coach, Klate’s performances have been haphazard at best.
Several coaches - some having two stints for the national team - have come and gone since and all of them failed in their attempts to get the best out of him on a supposedly bigger stage.
With Mashaba a big believer in wing play, Klate’s current club form - he has scored three goals in eight matches - has the coach convinced that he can be useful against Senegal at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on November 12 in the national team’s second World Cup qualifier. Bafana were held to a 1-1 draw away to Burkina Faso in their opener, played at the Stade du 4 Aout in Ouagadougou, while Senegal beat Cape Verde 2-0 in Dakar to go top of Group D.
“It’s a must-win,” said Mashaba yesterday. “I know people often say you must win your home games and try and maybe get a point away from home, but we want to win all our games. Yes, there can be a time where you say, when you are away from home, you try to consolidate. We know Senegal will be tough because we have watched their previous three matches, including the one against Cape Verde.”
Mashaba has also added a new face in Belgium-based striker Lars Veldwijk.
“I have been monitoring him since he was playing for Nottingham Forrest and now he has moved to Belgium. He is a big boy, strong and can maybe help us get the goals,” the coach said of the 25-year-old, who has links to South Africa through his father but was born in the Netherlands.
On paper, Veldwijk’s one goal in five games for KV Kortrijk isn’t convincing, but Mashaba will be desperate for some much needed firepower next month or risk seeing Bafana’s World Cup bid go up in smoke.
Bafana squad
Goalkeepers: Itumeleng Khune, Brighton Mhlongo, and Ronwen Williams
Defenders: Ramahlwe Mphahlele, Rivaldo Coetzee, Thulani Hlatshwayo, Clayton Daniels, Asavela Mbekile, Tebogo Langerman, Mulomowandau Mathoho, Thabo Matlaba
Midfielders: Dean Furman, Andile Jali, May Mahlangu, Ayanda Patosi, Keagan Dolly, Daine Klate, Mpho Makola, Hlompho Kekana
Strikers: Eleazar Rodgers, Bradley Grobler, Lars Veldwijk, Sibusiso Vilakazi, Thulani Serero, Thuso Phalaw
Follow Mazola Molefe on Twitter@superjourno
The Star