Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki has put his side’s lacklustre performance in the second half of the draw against Namibia down to loss of concentration.
On their first fixture in close to a year, South Africa took a first-half lead through Luther Singh, but their early inroads were undone early in the second 45 when Absalom Iimbondi cancelled out the 23-year-old’s effort.
Molefi Ntseki reacts after Namibia draw
The Namibian’s 55th-minute strike proved to be the final goal of the contest, which ended in disappointment for the hosts, who have another friendly match on the weekend.
According to Ntseki, several factors contributed to his team’s performance, including a lack of fitness and low concentration in the latter half of the contest.
“I will admit that the fact that the players’ level of fitness hasn’t reached its peak played a role to our performance yesterday. At half-time, we realised that we needed to make a few changes and take advantage of the six substitutes law allowed during international friendlies.
“We had moments where the players lost concentration which lead to Namibia almost equalising in the first half. The lapse of concentration which led to Namibia equalising is one of the areas we will focus on ahead of our next match this coming Sunday, 11 October 2020.”
Molefi Ntseki
Zambia awaits Bafana
Portugal-based defender Thibang Phete was one of the standout players in yellow, despite only making his debut on the night.
He, along with AmaZulu midfielder Siyathemba Sithebe and Thabo Nodada from Cape Town City, was handed their first caps by Ntseki.
The former SA under-17 coach was full of praise for the debutants, who stood in for some of the regulars rested ahead of the match against Zambia.
“As of today (Friday), our attention has moved to our next match against Zambia, where players who were rested will get a run. We rested four of our senior players last night to try and work on new combinations and we saw new ideas going forward.”
South Africa and Zambia do battle at Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Sunday. The game kicks off at 15:00 (SAST).