Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Shakes Mashaba stressed the need cohesion ahead of the Nigeria clash and said that he won't make many changes to the team.
Mashaba said he was pondering whether to make changes to his team, but ruled out making wholesale replacements following the success in the Sudan encounter.
“We need to be cautious, we are building up a team here. If you look at the cohesion, it’s not at its best.
“Yes, the Sudan game we won, but in the first half we struggled which is what we can’t allow to happen here.
“A big number of changes will cause us problems. Let’s look at starting with one or two changes. We need not make bigger changes because we still want these players to gel.”
Wrapping-up preparations at the final session on a flawless Cape Town Stadium pitch, Mashaba appeared to be undecided whether Furman would be in his starting line-up or not.
Kamohelo Mokotjo seemed to be preferred, but after a stellar performance in testing conditions in Khartoum, Furman seemed an obvious choice to start again in his home town.
Elsewhere, Sibusiso Vilakazi, who was the hero in Sudan scoring twice from the bench, looked to have successfully secured himself a starting role -- if Mashaba’s training was any indication.
Despite fielding a barrage of questions afterwards, Mashaba succeeded in the battle of wits and gave little away about his starting XI ahead of Wednesday’s 8pm kick-off.
“When you sit down and look at your player, it’s not easy to come up with the 11. That is why we decide to make announcements on the eve of the match, also the reason is that I want to sleep and rest,” the 64-year-old said with a grin.
