Bafana 'lacking' up front

Cape Town - Shakes Mashaba admits that Bafana Bafana were lacking mental intelligence upfront after their goalless draw against Congo.

Read: Bafana Bafana player ratings vs Congo

According to Soccer Laduma, Mashaba insist that the game should have been over within the first 25 minutes considering the chances Bafana had.

"We should have buried it in the first 20-25 minutes, our strikers were stronger than their defenders, but most importantly we lacked mental intelligence upfront,” said the 64-year-old.

"Most of the time our players are not good visitors to this weather, we had one or two chances to score there, it was a good game.”

The conditions on the evening deterred plans for Mashaba with many stop-starts to the game. Congo played a well organised structure in not allowing South Africa to get comfortable on the ball quickly enough.

Mashaba confessed that Thulani Serero struggled having to deal with the physicality of the game and Congo attacked mainly from the left side where Sibusiso Khumalo, who filled the void for injured Thabo Matlaba, and the Ajax Amsterdam midfielder teamed up.

However it was Tokelo Rantie who Mashaba felt could have done better in certain situations upfront.

“We don't blame people when they embark on a solo effort, but he (Rantie) overdid it, at some stages he'll run to the ball and he'll find himself in wrong positions and he was surrounded by four people but those are the things we got to work on,” added Mashaba.

South Africa host Sudan in mid-November, before travelling to the ever-tricky Nigeria shortly after.

Teams:

South Africa: Meyiwa, Hlatshwayo, Mathoho, Coetzee, Khumalo, Furman, Jali, Masango, Serero (Manyisa 67’), Rantie (Vilakazi 80’), Ndulula (Erasmus 63’).

Congo: Massa, F N’Ganga (Boukama 77’), Baudry, Moutou, I Nganga, Ngonga, Ndinga, Oniangue, Gandze, Dore, Bifouma.

As it happened: Bafana v Congo