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'Time is running out for SA'

Johannesburg - Former South Africa coach Ted Dumitru believes the training camp in Brazil will be Bafana Bafana's saviour but Free State Stars coach Gordon Igesund is not so convinced.

The national soccer team head out to South America next week for a month to step up preparations ahead of the World Cup with coach Carlos Alberto Parriera selecting a 29-man squad.

Dumitru told IOL: "Taking the players to Brazil is the best answer possible for us.

"They will be in an environment where almost everything is about football. It is quite unusual for a team who are hosting the World Cup to be doing this, but we have to face the reality that this camp is our only saviour."

Dumitru also slated the coaching in the PSL and admitted that Parriera has a tough job ahead of him to get the team ready in time.

"Parreira's philosophy on football is not practiced by our (Premiership) clubs. The coach talks about possession football, but our teams have this long-ball mentality, and then there's high expectation that the coach must correct this when he has just a few days with the team.

"Now the camp in Brazil should give the coach enough time to correct some of the flaws which were exposed against Namibia (on Wednesday night).

"Some of our players have been poisoned at club level - all they know is kick-and-rush, headless-chicken football - and this makes it difficult for the national coach.

"The failure to beat Namibia was a clear demonstration of what's wrong with our clubs.

Igesund, meanwhile is concerned by the continued experimentation in the squad and believes South Africa should have a settled side already.

He said: "Guys like Steven Pienaar and Aaron Mokoena should have been called up (for the Namibia match)."

"Instead, we saw players like Bradley Carnell coming back after a long time. This is an indication that the coach (Parreira) is still assessing players.

"But time is running out. "We should be having a clarity in what team we are taking to the World Cup."

"You have to field your strongest possible team at this stage. It is shocking that we are only 90 days or so away from the first match and we are still experimenting

"The team that started against Namibia had six or seven changes to the team that played the last match (against Zimbabwe).

"How are guys like Pienaar and Mokoena going to blend with the rest when they are not playing together?

"Teams like England and Germany already know the 23 players they are taking to the World Cup," said Igesund.

"I don't understand the motivation behind taking the team to Brazil. Almost every team wants to come here because the tournament is here, not in South America." 
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