Shakes Mashaba should be looking forward to Bafana Bafana’s clash against Nigeria with glee.
After all, his team has had a good win this week, beating Swaziland 3-1.
Add to that the fact that their opponents in Mbombela on Sunday come into the match fresh from a 1-0 defeat at home against Uganda and there’s good reason for the coach to be confident of leading South Africa to their second win over their nemesis.
To the uninitiated, Bafana were responsible for Nigeria not participating at the Africa Cup of Nations finals earlier this year – the South Africans having qualified ahead of the west African giants.
But as he anticipated the match, Mashaba was cautiously optimistic – aware of the fact that Nigeria will present much stronger competition than did Swaziland.
“It’s a good result to take to Mpumalanga and hopefully it rubs off positively,” he said of the 3-1 win at Somhlolo, courtesy of goals from Thulani Hlatshwayo, Thabo Mnyamane and Mandla Masango, before highlighting the vast gap in class between the two sides.
“These are two different games, so you cannot take what happened in Swaziland to Mpumalanga because it is going to be a tough game as well.
“We will do our best. You will remember that they still have a score to settle with us. They will come (here) spitting fire but we will be ready for them.”
The Super Eagles will no doubt still be seething and keen to get even with their rivals following the Afcon qualifying matches.
While they did not lose any of those qualifiers, Nigeria were hugely embarrassed by their failure to qualify and would love nothing to get one over Bafana.
But for the South Africans, their failure to beat what most regarded as arguably the weakest Nigerian side they’ve ever faced, should be a driving force and Mashaba will no doubt be keen to see his team do better than they did in the qualifiers.
He would most probably remind them of that second round match in Uyo where they dominated their hosts to the extent of going into a 2-0 lead that they unfortunately failed to protect.
A similar performance against a Super Eagles side teeming with new players is likely to produce only South Africa’s second victory over Nigeria since our readmission to the international game.
Mashaba, though, would have used yesterday’s and today’s training session to sort out the little issues that left him a bit unsettled following the win in Swaziland.
“My defence did not do well, we should have done better,” he lamented.
Against Nigeria, Bafana cannot afford to be defensively lax as the Super Eagles possess a much stronger strike force than the Swazis, although it must be said they were very disappointing against Uganda.
It is for this reason that Lehlohonolo Majoro will have to exert himself better than he did on Wednesday when – according to Mashaba – he “never competed for the high balls and his first touch was not good”.
Meanwhile, the National Under-17 team will play a curtain-raiser in Mbombela, keen to show they will be worthy representatives of the continent at their World Cup in Chile later this year. Amajimbos, who booked their spot at the global showpiece by finishing as runners-up in the Africa Junior Championships, play Mali in the curtain-raiser. - The Star