By Ayanda Nyuswa
Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos says all players will get game time in the upcoming June international friendlies, in an effort to conduct a thorough assessment of the squad. South Africa will play two international friendlies against Tanzania (Friday 6 June) at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane and Mozambique (Tuesday 10 June) at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
The Belgian mentor announced a 41-member preliminary squad that was further trimmed down to 23 players for these two matches. The final squad included seven new faces and doesn’t feature any players from Mamelodi Sundowns who are preparing to do battle in the FIFA Club World Cup in a week’s time.
Orlando Pirates trio of Mbekezeli Mbokazi, Mohau Nkota and Simphiwe Selepe earned their maiden call-ups, while TS Galaxy’s Khulumani Ndamane and former Rockets defender Samkelo Kabini could also make their senior national debuts.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for the new players who are with us and also the young players, there is no pressure we play friendly games so the result is not that important. From my side I will give every player the same play time”, Broos said, addressing the media in Polokwane.
“It’s a little bit difficult for goalkeepers but even there we will try and make sure every goalkeeper is playing the same minutes and that we make a good evaluation after this FIFA week. The performance is the most important thing so surely we would like to win the two games and we will do everything to win the two games, but more important is the performance of the players, certainly the new players. Again, I will not put pressure on them, they just have to play their game and we will see, evaluate what we are going to do in the future.”
