Maema Bolster Ntseki’s Bafana B Side Ahead Of Malawi Clash
South Africa has received crucial reinforcements ahead of their African Nations Championship (CHAN) second leg qualifier against Malawi at Loftus Stadium on Sunday.
Coach Molefi Ntseki was a happier man at training on Thursday afternoon as he had Neo Maema, Ndumulelo Maphangule, Victor Letsoalo, Siyanda Msani, Simon Ramabu and Kamogelo Sebelebele in full swing. Ntseki missed the services of these players in the first leg a few days ago, in a game that Malawi won 1-0 at home in Lilongwe.
The South Africans played a tough training match against Motsepe Foundation Championship side Casric Stars at Loftus on Thursday, and Ntseki said he was happy to see these players in camp in Pretoria this week.
“I think the first one was us playing the game we played in Malawi and the plan was to get a goal and not to concede. Unfortunately, we struggled with the game management,” he said.
“Obviously, when you have players that are not playing regularly in their teams and some of them without teams, we ended up conceding that odd goal in the last three minutes of the game. But that did not make us feel bad about the team. We came out of that game with the best lessons that we needed to take into the next game.
“And coming back to South Africa, we made requests to the clubs to release players, especially clubs that are not playing this weekend. So, we are aware that Chippa played Sundowns, Pirates played Golden Arrows, and then there is also the Nedbank Cup final this coming weekend.”
Ntseki said he was very happy when the clubs availed their players, and he now has a stronger and more balanced team ahead of Sunday’s clash. “The teams responded very positive because they ended up sending six of the players that we needed in camp.”
