Mashaba blasts Bafana for overlooking Cosafa in Afcon preparation
Former Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba says the Cosafa Cup should have been used to prepare the South African national team set to compete at Afcon.
Shakes Mashaba, coach of South Africa celebrates with the fans during 2018 World Cup Qualifiers match between South Africa and Senegal at Peter Mokab Stadium. (Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix)
Bafana have struggled to secure friendly games before they take part in the 2019 Afcon in Egypt later this month.
Mashaba has criticised the decision to send coach David Notoane’s Under-23 squad to represent South Africa in the Cosafa Cup.
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The former Witbank Spurs coach says Cosafa was a perfect platform for Bafana Bafana to test if they were ready for the continental cup competition.
“Bafana should have gone there to play the Cosafa and win it convincingly to gain some confidence for the Afcon,” Mashaba told Sowetan.
“That was the perfect platform to use to gather momentum and go to Egypt knowing that we are the champions of our region. We had this Cosafa stage to use, but we wasted it. Other nations like Zimbabwe are using the tournament to prepare… why didn’t we do the same?”
“For Baxter to say they are hoping that one of the losing teams from Cosafa come to Joburg to play a friendly with them shows a lack of planning from our side. That’s an embarrassing and unacceptable situation,” said Mashaba.
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