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Bafana gears up for Senegal

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Bafana Bafana faces Senegal again on Tuesday night, just four days after the Senegalese beat them to book a ticket to the World Cup in Russia. In front of a packed Peter Mokaba Stadium on Friday night, Senegal secured a victory with a 2-nil win.

Bafana will need a confidence booster after a disappointing night in Polokwane on Friday.

Coach Stuart Baxter says that even though this match is a dead rubber, his team will give everything in this match.

“I don’t think you should need to motivate players to play for their country. You may have to give a reason and inspire them a little bit now, to find that motivation but basically any gut that’s picked should connect.”

Except for 2010 when they were hosts, Bafana have failed to qualify for the World Cup since 1998, which is a worrying factor. Baxter believes something should be changed to stop the rot, but it will need SAFA, the PSL and clubs to be on the same page to help Bafana get past this undesirable record.

“There’s a saying that if you do what you’ve always done, you will probably get what you always got. I don’t think we have changed our mentality at all since I was here the first time, I don’t think we have changed our mentality at all. I don’t think we have changed our way of working too .

SAFA still hasn’t given up hope. The football body has applied to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in The Hague, for them to look into FIFA’s decision to overturn the result of the first match last year. However the CAS doesn’t yet show if it’s an issue it will look into. SAFA had hoped the court could overrule FIFA, because that would mean tomorrow’s match would once again become significant. If the original result was to stand, the group would see Senegal on 8 points, South Africa on 7, and Burkina Faso and Cape Verde on 6. Even the other match between Burkina Faso and Cape Verde would take on added significance.

 

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