Bafana
Bafana returned safely from Morocco on Monday morning with coach Gordon Igesund
expressing his delight after giving several youngsters a chance to feature on
an international stage.
The
match, which ended in a 1-1 draw, took place at the Agadir New Stadium in the
North African country, which will also host the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
Igesund
took along a few youngsters and gave them a taste of international football.
Speaking to the press on arrival, Igesund said he was not disappointed with
what he saw.
“I
am happy with the exercise we took to go to Morocco and introduce these
youngsters against some of the best players in international football. I was
able to see how they react in front of a big crowd like the one we had in
Agadir. We will be introducing more youngsters in the next few matches because
we need a bigger pool of players to get the team ready for the 2015 AFCON
qualifiers and tournament as well as the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia,” said
Igesund.
The
Bafana Bafana mentor said the focus would now be on CHAN tournament taking
place in South Africa next year.
“It
is important that we start preparing for that event. Everything we do now going
forward will solely be for the tournament. We are working on finalizing two
matches as a start next month, and we might end up playing four friendly
matches before the CHAN. But the first thing I have to do is find out about the
availability of players for the tournament. We need to get that sorted soon so
that I can start working on selecting the players to feature in the CHAN. Talks
are ongoing between the South African Football Association (SAFA) and the
Premier Soccer League (PSL). In the next few days we might have an idea of which
direction to take,” added Igesund.
