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Molefi Ntseki has assembled a Bafana Bafana squad dominated by 15 unattached players as they gear up for the CAF African Nations Championships (CHAN) tournament next month.
But what makes the SAFA Acting Technical Director comfortable in taking this team to the showpiece co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda is that these players are of high quality, as seen in yesterday’s friendly match against Angola.
The group includes the likes of Keagan Dolly, Neo Maema, and Ramahlwe Mphahlele, to name a few, and Ntseki has been impressed with the levels and maturity of these players.
"It has always been a challenge from our first game against Egypt, and then the one against Malawi, but I think the players that were made available for selection are good quality players that are very much proud to be part of this team," said Ntseki.
"You can tell [by] the attitude and work rate of the players we've had since we started the qualifiers, and the ones we have now and that played today.
"We have 15 of them that are unattached, but it is not because of a lack of quality from their side, there are many other reasons why these players are not attached – and these are good quality players who have been in the [PSL] league for more than 5-10 seasons.
"So you can't go wrong, if ever you have these types of players that are part of the team going into CHAN, so I'm really very impressed and happy to have this group, and in terms of cohesion and how they interact with each other, you can tell these are mature players."
Bafana will depart for Uganda on Sunday and play their opening game of the tournament against Algeria next Friday, before facing the hosts, Guinea-Conakry, and Niger to complete the group stage, with Ntseki stressing the importance of game management.
"I think it would be more of each session and each game at a time because we were talking about tactical flexibility and how to manage your physical attributes when going into a tournament like this," he added.
"Because tournament football is different from playing in a league, because every game you play is a cup final, so the most important thing is how you manage yourself, the opponents and the game.
"And if ever the game has to go into extra-time, the concentration levels also come into play, but I think the quality and experience we have in this group, we can only improve with each training session and each game we'll play."
