Cape Town - Disappointed, but far from discouraged. This was the confident opinion from Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba on his team’s arrival in Joburg at the weekend, after they had crashed out of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Equatorial Guinea.
The SA national football side finished last in Group C, after a 3-1 defeat to Algeria, a 1-1 draw with Senegal and a 2-1 loss to Ghana. Amid a maelstrom of criticism, on aspects such as selection, perceived arrogance and defensive frailties, Mashaba remains adamant that Bafana are on track.
“The aim has always been qualification for World Cup 2018,” said the Bafana coach. “When I took over, the first objective was to build a new team. That, I think, has been achieved.
“Then, we wanted to qualify for the 2015 Afcon, which we did, knocking out African champions Nigeria in the process.
“In keeping with Safa’s (SA Football Association) Vision 2022 project, the idea was also to bring through a number of young players. That, too, has been done. And the experience of having played at Afcon will be of great help. They will grow, and the team will become even better. By 2018, when the World Cup comes around, I believe we will have a formidable squad.”
Mashaba, in fact, does not view Bafana’s Afcon campaign as a failure. He is certain that both he, as the coach, and the players will be able to learn from the tournament.
“I don’t believe the team failed, this was all part of a learning curve,” he said. “We will learn from the disappointment. The setback will make us stronger. We have to take the positives and work on that. We also have to look at the negatives. I believe we must not forget the past... because we can learn from it. Wherever we went wrong at Afcon, we must make sure we don’t repeat those mistakes. There are areas we need to work on.
“Afcon was vital in exposing players to the tournament. And now that the SA under-20s have won an event in Russia, that will make the pool of players even stronger. All of this emphasises that we are on the right track.”
As for selection, Mashaba says everybody will always have their own favourite players.
“Everyone has his own team he wants to pick,” he said. “But we looked at what we wanted, and chose the players we thought best. We had a great mix and it is working for us. So we have no regret in player selection at all.”
And the coach insisted that, despite bowing out of Afcon, he was nevertheless satisfied.
“I thought we competed well,” said Mashaba. “If we had taken our scoring chances, we would still be in Equatorial Guinea.
“If you listen to many people at the tournament, they raved about this young Bafana squad. They established themselves and I will not be surprised if there are few overseas offers for some players.”
Cape Argus