South Africa were dominant in the Moruleng stadium near Rustenburg on Sunday, boosting their confidence ahead of the second leg, which will be played in two weeks' time.
Coach Shakes Mashaba and his team, who were eliminated in an early qualifying round, were expecting to watch from home as the other African junior teams battled it out at the games, scheduled to be held in Maputo in September. But then Baby Bafana were thrown a lifeline late last year after Namibia pulled out, leaving a gap for South Africa to return.
Mashaba's team then took on the challenge, beating Angola over two legs in their first round of qualifying.
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| SA under 23 coach - Shakes Mashaba |
Eight teams from the continent take part in the All-Africa Games, with the winners being picked from eight African zones.
Mashaba is still torn between deciding which tournament he will focus on during the qualification stages. His team is on a double mission after progressing to the next phase of the 2012 London Olympics qualification, where it will face Benin in June.
The team beat Libya 4-2 on aggregate in the Olympic qualifiers and was seeded in Pool A along with other high-ranking African teams.
"We haven't paused in our preparations for the Olympics next year. The two competitions are very important to me for different reasons," said Mashaba.
"There's no competition that has been given priority at this stage. We are also looking at the under-20 tournament (African Youth Championship being held in South Africa this month) and hoping we will get players from that pool for some of our qualifiers that are not on the Fifa calendar."
Mashaba will have his star players from the Premier Soccer League and a few European-based clubs for South Africa's Olympic qualifier for the first leg of the Benin match, as it falls on a Fifa date.
He will have to rely on the same team that beat Malawi for most of the upcoming matches.
The end of the PSL season in May will also make available big-name players such as the Ajax Cape Town trio of Thulani Serero, Thulani Hlatshwayo and George Maluleka.
There have also been reported clashes between Mashaba and Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane over players who qualify for both teams. They are Kermit Erasmus, Daylon Claasen, Darren Keet and Serero.
Source -http://Timeslive.co.za
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