On Bafana’s upcoming Afcon qualifiers against Liberia
We are playing crucial back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and from what I’ve seen, Mamelodi Sundowns is dominating the squad selection. In my opinion, there should be no excuses, South Africa should qualify for the next Afcon. It doesn’t matter whether there are three countries in our group or four – we should qualify for the next tournament. We should be better than Liberia, 100 percent. South Africa and Morocco should be favourites to make it out of this group. We did not qualify for previous tournaments because other African countries are improving, they are developing their players. It’s not all (a) foregone conclusion that we are going to beat Liberia in these matches, but if you look at our pool of players, we should be able to beat them. Five or 10 years ago, do you think that Gambia would have reached the U20 Afcon final? The answer is no, or at least their chances were slim. But now they have developed their players to be ready for the U20 Afcon and that is why they reached the final (and lost to Senegal) in Egypt. They managed to beat Nigeria on their way to the final and that shows you that other African countries are not standing in one place, they are developing players and making progress. There are no more walkovers in African football, you have to be at your best in order to win. Sundowns is also dominating in Africa and their players will be able to bring that experience to the national team, which is good for the country.
