BAFANA UPBEAT DESPITE LOW RANK

Bafana Bafana has slipped down 10 places in just two months, but remains upbeat about the fixture against Poland tonight

Despite sliding down the FIFA rankings again, the South African national team, Bafana Bafana, is looking to defeat Poland in their own backyard when the two lock horns in the Polish capital of Warsaw tonight.

South Africa slid two more places to rank 76th in the world. This is the second time the national team has descended in just two months, as they slid eight places, from 64th to 74th, in September 2012.
According to the City Press, Bafana’s continued decline is largely determined by the quality of opposition the team plays.

The team can only earn valuable points if they face tough or higher ranking opposition. It is thus difficult to attain points when the national team plays teams that are as weak as it is or weaker, like Mozambique.
The national team head coach, Gordon Igesund, expressed his desire to face much tougher opposition when he announced the squad last week, but SAFA said that it had been bound by contractual obligations to play the Poles in response.

Poland is ranked 54th on the FIFA rankings and a Bafana Bafana victory against them will be of little if no significance to the latter’s global ranking. The team will be using the encounter against Bafana to prepare for their World Cup qualifier next week Tuesday.

Although Poland is ranked higher than Bafana Bafana, the last time the teams met Bafana walked off with a 1-0 victory, at Orlando Stadium in June 2009.

In the line-up that will face Poland tonight, Igesund has made nine changes to the 26-man squad. He has further included Slovakia-based left back, Ricardo Nunes, who will be making his debut for the national team.
Nunes, who joined up with the squad in Warsaw earlier in the week, currently plays for MSK Zilina. He is widely known for taking good free kicks, which have regularly troubled the opposition’s goal keepers in the Slovak Super Liga.

Igesund has also included Bloemfontein Celtic skipper, Thabo Nthethe, in his defence line-up to supplement the regular presence of the likes of Erick Mathoho, Punch Masenamela and Siyabonga Sangweni.
Nthethe will miss of his local club’s jaunts this weekend against Soweto giants, Kaizer Chiefs.

The match will also mark the return of Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder, Teko Modise, to the Bafana Bafana contingency, to fill up the void left by Thulani Serero’s injury and Steven Pienaar’s retirement last week.
The Bafana’s midfield pack has also been boosted by the inclusion of Orlando Pirates’ midfield maestro, Sifiso Myeni, whose form has surged ever since returning from injury to debut for the Bucs.

Bernard Parker will prove to be a handful for the Polish defenders, and will be hoping to continue his goal scoring spree. The on-form Chiefs striker has been showcasing some unrelenting, magnificent performance, both in the local sphere and for Bafana, and managed to score a brace to sink Mozambique in Bafana’s previous encounter.

Parker’s efforts upfront will be supplement by Dino Ndlovu, who recently returned from an injury he sustained during the encounter against Brazil, and Delron Buckley who returns to the squad after five years.
Igesund has dropped Siyabonga Nomvethe, Thabo Matlaba, Thamsanqa Gabuza, Kamohelo Mokotjo and Nkosi Ntlhe from the squad, while veteran striker, Benni McCarthy, is also still recovering from injury.