Mashaba announces COSAFA Cup squad
South Africa will face Botswana in the quarter-final of the competition.
Bafana Bafana’s head coach Ephraim Shakes Mashaba has named a 22-man squad for the COSAFA CUP tournament which runs from May 17 to 30.
South Africa will face Botswana in the quarter-final, on Sunday, May 24, at Moruleng Stadium in the North West Province. Kick-off is at 17:30.
Fourteen of the players ply their trade in the Premier Soccer League, while the rest are from the National First Division, the ABC Motsepe League and academies.
There are no overseas-based players in the squad.
“This was perhaps one of the most difficult squads to announce due to a number of reasons. The end of the domestic league programme always poses a challenge for the national team as it is not easily clear which players will be available. And when you look down the NFD and ABC Motsepe Leagues, you find some of the players you have earmarked for a tournament of this nature are involved in play-offs,” said Mashaba.
“We will have three warm-up matches before the start of the tournament as there are many new players in the set-up and that exercise will help a great deal. The good thing about this squad is that we are increasing our base of national team players because the bigger the base, the more the fight for places in the squad, which makes for a strong Bafana Bafana. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the clubs who have released their players for national team duty.”
Bafana Bafana went into camp on Sunday, May 10, in Johannesburg, and had training sessions on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, May 13, the teams will travel to Lesotho to play two training matches against the host nation on Thursday, May 14 and Saturday, May 16.
They have also scheduled another training match against Malawi, which will be played on Friday, May 22, in Rustenburg at a venue to be confirmed.
