Shakes Mashaba has warned South Africa against excitedly expecting Bafana Bafana to saunter into the next round of the African Nations Championships (CHAN) qualifiers.
Bafana have been drawn to face Mauritius in the preliminary stage of the tournament for players who ply their trade in their domestic leagues, a tie many will anticipate the South Africans to have no problem winning given their history against the Indian Ocean islanders.
But Mashaba was quick to caution against over-confidence: “Some may be thinking we are playing Mauritius so it will be a walk in the park, but there are no easy teams anymore in international football.
“Every team wants to do well and if they believe you are a powerhouse they come at you firing on all cylinders, so we must prepare well and work hard for our success.”
That is likely to be the case with Mauritius, who have yet to beat Bafana since South Africa’s readmission to the international stage back in 1992.
Bafana will host the Mauritians in the third weekend of June with the return leg scheduled for the first weekend of July.
The winner of the tie will face either Swaziland or Angola for a spot in the 16-nation tournament that will be hosted by Rwanda from January 16 to February 7 next year.
Mashaba is aware of South Africa’s poor record in the showpiece that provides many local-based players an opportunity to play at an international tournament given that most African nations use overseas-based players for the more prestigious Africa Cup of Nations.
“The last time, we did not do well at home in the CHAN tournament and many will still be making reference to that so we have to improve on that. We need to pick a strong team that will represent this country well because we have many capable players who are home-based and can hold their own against other nations.
“I am confident we will succeed.”
Bafana could not get out of the group stages, failure that led to Sport Minsiter Fikile Mbalula controversially referring to the team as “a bunch of losers”. While their performances under Mashaba have since got Mbalula singing a different tune, Bafana would love nothing more than to get much further in next year’s edition and even possibly win the tournament.
That done, they will add their name alongside those of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tunisia and Libya who are the previous winners of the tournament that was only launched in 2009.