Baxter hails Bafana youngsters
Stuart Baxter was particularly pleased with the performance of his young guns after Bafana Bafana won the Four Nations friendly tournament on Saturday with a 2-0 win over host nation Zambia at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
Bafana Bafana players celebrate after winning the Four Nations tournament (Safa)
Baxter gave several youngsters a chance over the two matches in Ndola, as they beat Angola on penalties on Wednesday and then sank Chipolopolo through goals from Percy Tau and a second strike in two matches for 22 year-old Lebo Mothiba.
Mothiba was a late substitute, having started on Wednesday, while Baxter gave starts to the likes of Maritzburg United’s Siphelele Ndlovu and SuperSport United’s Teboho Mokoena.
“I am delighted with the way the young players performed,” said Baxter.
“This evening we had a couple of kids from the start and when we were under pressure in the second half it would have been easy to take off Ndlovu and put on Dean Furman. It would have been easy to not put on Lebo (Mothiba) and not put on Ryan (Moon) … to take off Mokoena instead of taking off Kamo (Mokotjo).
“But our objective was to lean as much as we could about the players. This was a high-pressure game and I think they dealt with it well. We have to try to give them more international experiences.
“When you are under pressure to win your matches, you can pick your best team … and if you pick the best team, and it goes wrong, everyone cries for you to bring in the kids. But they are not prepared and you fail. So we are trying to deepen the squad and widen the pool we have to work with. You won’t do it unless you take a chance.”
This was Bafana’s last real preparation for African Cup of Nations 2019 qualifiers that start again in September.
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