Durban - Bafana Bafana’s growth curve may have been slanting too heavily in the wrong direction for about a decade now, but the controversial withdrawal of six Orlando Pirates men from the Nelson Mandela Challenge in Durban on Wednesday will be giving coach Gordon Igesund fewer sleepless nights than first imagined.
Igesund could have forced the Bucs players to stay in camp because the clash with African champions Nigeria at the Moses Mabhida Stadium is part of the Fifa calendar for international games.
But in relenting he must have sensed he could get by without them, because the reality is that virtually all of the Bucs “super six” of Senzo Meyiwa, Thabo Matlaba, Oupa Manyisa, Andile Jali, Daine Klate and Thandani Ntshumayelo were only likely to be reserves against the Super Eagles anyway.
This is probably also why Pirates coach Roger de Sa pressed for their release, so they could concentrate on next Saturday’s home clash with Zamalek of Egypt in the CAF Champions League instead.
Something can also be read into the fact that Igesund has called in just two replacements for the withdrawals. Moreover, the two new faces from SuperSport – David Mathebula and Bennett Chenene – will probably play a bigger role against Burkina Faso in the Nelson Mandela Sport and Culture Day at FNB Stadium on Saturday than in Durban.
Meyiwa was clearly going to be the understudy to skipper Itumeleng Khune between the sticks on Wednesday. Also, Matlaba would have been the cover for fullbacks Tshepo Masilela and Anele Ngcongca, otherwise Igesund would not have called right-back Ngcongca all the way from Belgium for what is an exhibition game. Likewise, Jali, Manyisa, Klate and Ntshumayelo were set to play second-fiddle to the likes of Dean Furman, Reneilwe Letsholoyane, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Lerato Chabangu and Thuso Phala in the midfield selections.
What the withdrawals do, though, is to force Igesund to rethink the substitutions he was planning for the second half on Wednesday, as well as curtail the international hopes of Jali and Klate in particular.
Wednesday’s clash against Stephen Keshi’s Super Eagles actually serves as a warm-up for the visit by Botswana to the east coast – Ethiopia go away to Central African Republic with a two-point advantage on the same day – and Igesund expects the crowd to get a good return on their R50 or R100 investment in view of the twin facts that Durban is normally a happy hunting ground for Bafana, and Nigeria have some top talents from big European clubs.
Mikel Obi might struggle for game-time at Chelsea in the English Premiership, but he still appears majestic on African fields, and there’s also the likes of Victor Moses (Chelsea, too), Ahmed Musa (CSKA Moscow) and Emmanuel Emenike (Fenerbache, Turkey) to trouble Khune and his four-man defence.
Igesund said his original selection had been based purely on form, despite recent public pressure to include Jali, and the two games being played by his team this week, especially Wednesday’s one, was going to be “great preparation for us because we’re playing two formidable teams” before facing Botswana.
Sunday Tribune