Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune and Ajax Amsterdam star midfielder Thulani Serero made their return to Bafana Bafana for the upcoming friendly matches against Swaziland and Nigeria.
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Khune, who last featured for Bafana Bafana at the 2014 African Nations Championship (Chan), was included in the 30-man squad for the international friendly matches against Swaziland and Nigeria later this month.
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Missing out on selection this time around is goalkeeper Darren Keet who has been part of coach Shakes Mashaba’s squad since he took over from Gordon Igesund. Keet has been inactive at his Belgian club and this could be the reason for his non-selection this time around.
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Serero, meanwhile was a key player in the qualifiers for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, only to miss out on the final selection. The player failed to report for the final selection camp citing fatigue as the reason and the Bafana Bafana technical team did not take kindly to this as they left him out.
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However, the door appeared to open for Serero, Kamohelo Mokotjo and May Mahlangu when SA Football Association president Dr Danny Jordaan announced that the suspensions were not indefinite.
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Mokotjo and Mahlangu are also part of this squad.
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These will be the first matches Mashaba’s men will play since the 2015 CAF Africa Cup of Nations tournament played in Equatorial Guinea – and Mashaba has kept the bulk of the players who did duty in that event.
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South Africa’s last match was a 1-2 loss to Ghana on Tuesday, 27 January at the Stade de Mongomo.
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“These are very important matches, even the way they are structured because if you remember well when we played the 2015 AFCON qualifiers they were set like this. And soon we will be going back to the qualifiers again so this is a good exercise for us as it prepares us well,” said Mashaba.
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“Secondly we have always said that competition is about participation, so we need to participate in order to go and compete. Thirdly it gives us an opportunity to widen our base for selection because we will use some players for the Swaziland match while some for the Nigeria match, so I think the more games we play the better.”
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Mashaba likes the idea of playing two different teams with differing styles of play.
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“Our main task is to build a new team, a team that will bring results. I know many will say we are playing Swaziland they are weak, but we have to be careful because many countries are regrouping. As we are going to Swaziland we should not forget that any team that plays South Africa wants to win,” added the Bafana Bafana mentor.
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“As for Nigeria we know they are tough, arrogant and you can never be arrogant when you are not confident. So we have to go and compete, not just tactically, but also mentally and physically. Let’s also not forget they might come here spitting fire because we denied them a chance to go to AFCON, so it is going to be a very tough encounter.”
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Meanwhile Mashaba has invited five promising players from the Castle Lager Football Academy initiative to be part of camp so they can train and learn from their more established colleagues. The five players are – Sifiso Nkosi, Bafana Dlamini and Tshepo Mokhabi.
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