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| Bafana |
South Africa suffered a 2-1 defeat to Zimbabwe in a friendly match at the Orlando Stadium on Tuesday night, the loss following a weekend in which Bafana’s World Cup 2014 dreams came to an end after they were edged out at the top of Group A by Ethiopia, despite beating Botswana in Durban.
On the score-sheet in Soweto last night were Kaizer Chiefs striker Knowledge Musona and Mamelodi Sundowns marksman Cuthbert Malajila, who saw his club team-mate Khama Billiat picking up the man-of-the-match award.
Following Bafana Bafana’s failure to qualify for next year’s showpiece in South America, the focus within the national team camp has quickly shifted to qualifying for the 2015 African Nations Cup, as well as the 2018 World Cup.
Igesund spoke of the need to form a national identity in terms of a playing style, while looking to a new generation of players to carry the national team flag.
Most of these future Bafana players that Igesund is speaking about play their football in the PSL. And with South Africa’s overseas-based stars not called up for last night’s game against Zimbabwe, Igesund was able to provide opportunities for some of the PSL’s brightest young talents to put their hands up.
After seeing his side struggling to threaten the Zimbabwe goal for most of the night, Igesund was left with more questions than answers and admitted that there is a lot work ahead, stressing that patience must be adhered to.
“Sometimes its good to lose, because then you have got a good idea of what you have really got. A lot of players out there were quite disappointing. It tells you a lot about the players, whether they can make it, or not make it.
“But we have got to experiment and try these players. We are talking about 2015, 2018, its not going to happen overnight. We have got to gradually put them in.
“They are going to start realising the difference between Premier League football and international football is huge. Sometimes they play well for their clubs and we say these guys are ready, put them in, put them in.
“We put them in but unfortunately it didn’t go so well for us. We had no shape, we never attacked the way we should have attacked.”
Following the break for international duty, the Absa Premiership resumes this weekend, starting on Friday night when Bidvest Wits host Ajax Cape Town in Johannesburg.
Source : PSL.co.za
Tags: Bafana, PSL,Igesund, Zim
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