Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos admits that he had a change of heart after initially planning not to call up Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates players because of their daunting schedule.
Broos’ charges take on neighbours Zambia in an international friendly on Saturday, 15 November, at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha.
The Belgian mentor has since explained that winning the tie against Chipolopolo is important for their rankings, after Bafana dropped to 10th in Africa and 59th place in the world and highlighted the importance of having his best players at his disposal.
“I want to win on Saturday and that’s all,” Broos said.
“So, the reason why my first idea was to let players of Sundowns and Pirates in their club because they have a very overloaded programme, but at the end I changed my mind because I want to win.
“Why I wanto to win, first of all, it’s important for our ranking. We want to stay certainly in the first 10 even going back to nine [spot] again.
“Secondly, we are one month before AFCON, and it shouldn’t be not a very good thing if we should lose the game on Saturday.
“I will ask from every player, focus and concentration like we had for the qualifiers. Even it’s not the qualifiers, but I will not accept that players are taking these games as a little holiday.
“I want to win on Saturday.”
Did you know that the iDiski Times Digital Newspaper is completely free! Download it now by clicking the button below or fill in the form to have it sent to you every week.