South Africa coach Shakes Mashaba is upbeat that the Bafana Bafana will compound Super Eagles woe when both sides clash in Match Day 2 of the African Cup Nations qualifier in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Mashaba said his team is focusing on the mental side of things ahead of the match, just as he called for a clinical performance, following Bafana’s dominant 3-0 victory over Sudan last Friday.
“It won’t be a technical match, they’re going to be fighting as well,” Mashaba said.
“I’ve got confidence with the kind of players that we’ve assembled here and I’m confident that we’ll get something out of the game.”
Second half replacement Sibusiso Vilakazi, who came on eight minutes into the second period in Khartoum, scored a superb brace to send South Africa on their way. Mashaba hinted he was resisting the temptation to include Vilakazi in his starting line-up as a result of the Wits’ midfielder’s heroics.
“In modern football, there’s what we call a technical weapon — good players start from the bench,” he said.
“All three subs who came on paid dividends. It was like they wanted to show the coach that they don’t belong to the bench.”
Meanwhile, Mashaba also confirmed Andile Jali was nursing a knock to his ankle. The midfielder took part in very little of Monday’s training.
Bafana played a friendly against local league side Santos on Sunday in which Jali did not take part as medical staff preferred to keep the fiery playmaker out of harm’s way.
“It will depend on us individually. The banning of Nigeria and all that, it’s not a technical thing, it’s an administrative thing,” Mashaba said at Athlone Stadium on Monday following the team’s second training session since arriving in the city on Saturday.
“We can only hope that our boys don’t buy into that. They must just shut off from all those noises, prepare for the game and look forward.”