Johannesburg - The SA Football Association (Safa) are finally getting into the habit of securing top international friendly matches for Bafana Bafana to help sharpen them for their tricky 2018 World Cup qualifiers, but Tuesday night’s clash against Ghana at Durban’s Moses Mabhida is ill-timed.
What good is a match of this calibre when the hosts only arrived back in the country at 6am on Monday having spent 14-hours on the road after a gruelling couple of days in Ouagadougou to face Burkina Faso in Group D of their opening World Cup qualifiers?
A below-par hotel, terrible food and limited training sessions make up the key elements of an exhausting tale in the lead up to a credible 1-1 draw at the Stade du 4 Aout.
This friendly game against Ghana, who were also involved in a World Cup qualifier against Uganda in their own backyard in Tamale, but played that fixture on Friday, seems a miscalculation.
The narrative changes slightly had Safa chartered a flight, allowing coach Shakes Mashaba ample time to get in enough preparation in Johannesburg and fly out at least two days before the match.
As expensive as that option might have been, Bafana might have offered a bit more fight on Saturday night and would have flown straight out of Ouagadougou to Durban in an effort to recover in time to face the Black Stars on Tuesday night.
None of that has happened, but the players are expected to give it a full go and show their fans that Ghana can be beaten.
Mashaba has to soldier on regardless, and will be under the watchful eye of his critics, who were aggrieved that Bafana dropped two points in the draw against Burkina Faso after Dean Furman had given them the lead late in the second half.
The coach made a last minute call soon after the team landed at OR Tambo International Airport to release three Mamelodi Sundowns players in Tebogo Langerman, Hlompho Kekana and Keagan Dolly ahead of their club’s first-leg CAF Champions League final against Zamalek on Saturday.
Dolly and Kekana started in Ouagadougou, while Langerman sat on the bench. Expect Mashaba to ring the changes for a match that is ideal preparation for the next qualifier against Senegal on November 12, but just appears to be rushed or even forced to take place given the hosts’ travelling logistics to and from Burkina Faso.
“I can’t say exactly how many changes I will make, but there will be some because of the fresh legs and so on,” said Mashaba. “These are the games we need to use to see if we are still on course with our 2022 Vision.
“We can’t always have the players on the pitch. Ghana is never an easy side to play, especially when you are bringing in new faces into the team. They normally say new brooms sweep clean, so they could possibly give us an edge.”
Itumeleng Khune, who went from a sick bed in the early hours of match day against Burkina Faso to being the Man of the Match, will probably sit this one out as he was still complaining about the tummy bug on Monday. Ayanda Patosi might also get a look in having only arrived in Ouagadougou on Thursday night due to visa issues.
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The Star