On the face of it, Bafana Bafana will take on easier opponents in Honduras late on Tuesday night than they did against Costa Rica in the early hours of Friday.
For one, Honduras are ranked way below the South Africans by Fifa, Los Catrachos positioned 89th and Bafana 74th.
Granted, rankings can often be misleading and Shakes Mashaba and his team will do well not to read much into that.
But then there’s the fact that Honduras have won only one of their last five matches, a 3-0 thrashing of Venezuela early last month.
Before and after that friendly success were a Concacaf Gold Cup draw and defeat to Panama and Haiti respectively as well as a friendly defeat to Ecuador plus a draw with Guatemala on Friday.
Not the kind of results to have Bafana shaking in their boots, especially not a Bafana side walking on water following a splendid display that saw them get the better of Costa Rica in their own backyard two days ago.
Yet a word of caution to the South Africans as they look to complete a successful tour of Central America with victory is that the man in charge of the opposition has a proven pedigree.
Colombian Luis Pinto will be standing opposite Mashaba on Tuesday eager to continue with his hopes of turning Honduras’ fortunes around. And being a little under a year in the job, Pinto believes he is on the right track with the match against Bafana presenting him yet another opportunity to test his boys against quality opposition from a different confederation.
“I want this team to do more with the ball, to play faster than they used to,” Pinto said in a recent interview with Fifa.Com.
“The talent is there, these players can go far.”
Almost every coach makes such pronouncements as they take on a new team, and most often than not they prove hollow. But Pinto is not just any coach, the Colombian having joined Honduras on the back of a fantastic 2014 World Cup run that saw him take Costa Rica to the quarter-finals.
And already they are feeling the impact of his experience in Honduras, having discarded most of the senior players who helped the country qualify for back-to-back World Cups (2010, 2014) for the first time in their history and replacing them with young players.
The process, as he said, cannot be easy. “Transition from one generation to the next is always painful, but it’s allowed me to look for a fresh style for Honduras.”
That style will be on show against a cock-a-hoop Bafana that will do well not to underestimate the opposition.
Fortunately captain Itumeleng Khune has called on his teammates to keep their eyes on the ball.
“The past two games against Senegal and Costa Rica have shown the great talent we have and that if we stay focused and continue working hard, we can go places. That is what we will strive to do going forward. All of us have the same resolve to take our football to the next level.”
With Pinto looking to do the same for Honduras, a fascinating match looks to be in the offing for anyone prepared to stay up until midnight (SA kick-off time) on Tuesday. - Sunday Independent