Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter has urged casualties Ben Motshwari, Fortune Makaringe and Kermit Erasmus not to drop their heads after having not made the cut for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Having assembled for camp this past week with his 26-man provisional squad, Baxter had to trim down his squad to only 23 players on Sunday. However, that process followed after intense training sessions at Steyn City School in Fourways last week. Moreover, in order to make sure no stone was left unturned, Baxter’s men played a friendly match among themselves at Tuks Stadium on Saturday.
Bafana Bafana warming up before playing a practice match among themselves at TUKS Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday, 8 June 2019 pic.twitter.com/FMI07buEwy
— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) June 8, 2019
“I told the players that when we selected the provisional squad for the Afcon tournament, we hoped that they would see that as a massive boost for their future and careers,” Baxter said on Sunday. “I’ve just spoken to Kermit about 10 minutes ago and I told him that he’s got his career back with Cape Town City.
Right up until the last day, he was within a good chance of making the list because he was very good. (But) I think that we are covered in those positions and I had to pick a couple of players that can make a double impact.”
HEADS UP: Stuart Baxter during his team announcement on Sunday. Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
The South Africans head to the continental showpiece under scrappy conditions having failed to organise as many preparation matches as possible.
Baxter’s team depart for Dubai on Monday, where they will play a friendly match against Ghana this Saturday. From there, they will connect to Egypt and play another friendly against Angola on June 19 before kicking off their campaign against Ivory Coast on June 24.
“We would have liked one more game because we played an internal game yesterday [Sunday],” Baxter explained. “It was good that we got an 11 versus 11 because there were some of the points that came out and of which we should address at training. But hopefully, we’ll do so before we meet Ghana.
It would have been nice if we had a friendly match here at home. I can’t say that I am not a little bit disappointed with that because I am. It would have been nice to have interaction with our supporters and we’d know what we are working (towards) going forward.”
Bafana are in Group D at the Afcon alongside Morocco, Ivory Coast and Namibia. Having had a scrappy qualifying process where they needed a draw in their last match against Libya, Bafana will need to be at their best in Egypt in order to progress to the knockout stages. But Baxter is optimistic that the squad he has assembled will give him a variety of options, having blended youth with experience.
Bafana Bafana Group Stages #AFCON2019 Dates :-
24-06-2019 vs Ivory Coast (16h30)
28-06-2019 vs Namibia (22h00)
01-07-2019 vs Morocco (18h00) pic.twitter.com/qNLtW3x6fz
— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) June 10, 2019
“We’ve tried to put together a balanced squad that should give us options tactically,” he said. “I think the strength of the squad is the togetherness. It’s been difficult to achieve that balance because we lost a centre-back.”
IOL Sport