Bafana
Bafana returned to serious training on Tuesday after being given a day off on
Monday with the good news that striker Lehlohonolo Majoro is fit to return for
the quarter-final match against Mali on Saturday. The match is scheduled for a
sold out Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Majoro
sustained a shin injury in South Africa’s 2-0 win over Angola and will train
alone until Thursday.
Bad
news however, is that defender Anele Ngcongca, who has featured in all three
Bafana Bafana matches in the tournament, has been suspended for the Mali clash
after receiving two yellow cards in the group stages.
“Everything
happens for a reason. Anele is not available for our next match, Gaxa has been
working hard at training and now his opportunity has arrived. Maybe he is the
right player for this match; even if Anele was available I think I would have
used Gaxa. I think things were meant to happen this way,” said Bafana Bafana
head coach Gordon Igesund.
“We
are two games away from the final, the players understand where we are and we
all know there is a huge challenge that lies ahead of us. We know what we have
to do. When you get this far in any competition, you are self motivated but at
the same time it gets tougher. Mali is a very talented team with very hard
working players,” added Igesund.
“They
play differently to most teams we have faced; they like to slow things down.
They knock the ball around and are very comfortable on the ball, but then again
there are no easy games in the quarter-finals.”
The
head coach said he was happy his players were starting to warm up to the
occasion after a slow start to the tournament.
“To
be honest, we were under huge pressure, it would have been an absolute tragedy
had we not qualified for the last eight. So the pressure is off as far as that
issue is concerned.
“The
expectations were so high because we hadn’t performed well in our friendly
matches. But when you analyse those matches you will realise they were very
tough and they are helping us now – Brazil, Poland, Kenya all away from home
Zambia, Mozambique, Norway, Algeria – they have prepared us well for this
tournament,” concluded the head coach.
