Bafana missing Khune ahead of Libya clash

The gold and black part of Soweto has been whining about the absence of Kaizer Chiefs captain Itumeleng Khune since he injured his left shoulder early January, and the greater concern now is who Stuart Baxter is going to entrust with the Bafana Bafana goalkeeping gloves.

Bafana need nothing less than a draw against Libya this weekend to book a spot in the Egyptian edition of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations. One person who feels the void left behind by “Spiderkid” is SuperSport United and Bafana goalkeeper coach Andre Arendse.

“We are not going to kid ourselves, Itu leaves a big hole in any team because of his quality, there is no doubt about it. But we are blessed with very good talent who can replace him when he is not there. At the moment challenging for that position are Ronwen Williams and Darren Keet, and we had to give it a bit of a think as to who we’d bring in as a third-choice goalkeeper and ultimately we went with Bruce Bvuma,” Arendse told Phakaaathi.

While either one between Keet and Williams are mostly likely to man the goals, it was Khune’s understudy at Naturena – Bvuma – whose inclusion raised eyebrows. The 23-year-old has made only two league appearances for Amakhosi, which makes his call-up even more questionable.

“There are a couple of reasons for his call-up, he is young, and no disrespect to other goalkeepers who have been in good form or are older and more mature because they have been fantastic … an example is Siyabonga Mbatha. He is having a great season with AmaZulu and he should be feeling a bit sad that he was left out but that is how these things work. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t get a chance in the future.

“We have had Bruce in the Cosafa Cup squad, I have worked with him before, I know what he is capable of, he just hasn’t had the luck at the club to get more game time but he has come in now and proved that he can do it in one game. It is always going to be a matter of opinions and in the end Stuart has to pick a squad and we have to respect that.

“We have to look at it from the development point of view … Bruce has got a number of years ahead of him to cement a place in a Bafana squad. We have to remember that we have the two stronger goalkeepers in the league at the moment challenging for the number one spot, the other one is going to be cover and it is to keep him in the system and at high level. It is a difficult situation, we never said it was going to be easy for the goalkeeping selection and we have to support the boy. We can’t knock the boy’s confidence by saying he doesn’t deserve to be in the squad,” Arendse pleaded.

The Bafana Bafana legend sounded like he has given Williams his backing to start in Tunisa ahead of Keet. Williams is, after all, a direct beneficiary of Arendse’s experience and expertise as he takes him through the drills on a daily basis at Matsatsantsa A Pitori’s training grounds.

“Ronwen knows and we have discussed it a number of times that he hasn’t had the best of times in a Bafana jersey but those things happen and you have got to fix it if you want to be consistent at that high level. Your mindset has got to be at that level all the time when you prepare for games.

The 51-year-old former Fulham and Mamelodi Sundowns shot-stopper added: “From a mindset perspective that is where Itu has really grown as an international player and Ronwen can get there, I work with him every day, he is even starting to train at a higher level and that is the kind of progress that he needs. Darren also needs that bit of work to maintain his stability at that level as well.”

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