With Mulomowandau Mathoho out injured and Rivaldo Coetzee withdrawn from the Bafana Bafana squad because of illness, Thulani Hlatshwayo has suddenly become the national team’s only regular defender ahead of Friday’s dead rubber 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier against Mauritania at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
Not to worry though, ‘Tyson’, as the Bidvest Wits captain is affectionately known, can handle the attention and responsibility. No-one else summed up his growth better than Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba earlier this week when he said Hlatshwayo came into the national team set-up as a baby and matured into a convincing leader.
In many ways, the man who has made 19 appearances for his country to date went from being another youngster with great potential at Ajax Cape Town to this fearless defender with all the right attributes when he joined the Clever Boys two years ago.
He has had the best start to a season yet, scoring two decisive goals in helping Wits beat Kaizer Chiefs 2-1 in their Absa Premiership league opener and dump Orlando Pirates out of the MTN8 quarter-finals with the same scoreline.
Mashaba had already recalled Hlatshwayo for Friday’s Afcon qualifier and the Nelson Mandela Challenge encounter against Egypt next week even before these performances that earned him rave reviews so early on into the 2016/17 campaign. A neck injury had ruled him out of Bafana’s trip away to Gambia in June.
“They always say you are as good as your last game. And given a chance, I will try to prove myself again and maybe even get into those positions to be a scoring defender for the national team as well,” the defender said.
“I am happy to be back because I got injured towards the end of last season and I missed out on the qualifier against Gambia. I also wasn’t there when Bafana played Mauritania away (in September last year). I look forward to the challenge and I can see the coach has faith in me because he announced the team even before the season started.”
Mashaba, a defender himself during his playing days, told a story of how he once scored 34 goals in one season.
We don’t have the record books to verify this, but the coach was using it as motivation for ‘Tyson’, a player he reckons is capable of even reaching double figures if he stays injury-free and finds spaces behind the opposition defenders as well as capitalising on set-pieces. But the player said scoring was really just an added bonus.
“Obviously we should be focusing on using these games as preparation for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. There were a lot of errors at the back in the last game against Mauritania because they are a tricky side, so if given a chance, my job is to help the defence improve.
The coach knows which combinations he will use for these games, but they are important for the future as well. For me, yes, I am happy to score because they say a complete defender is a scoring defender,” Hlatshwayo explained.
@superjourno
The Star