Shakes Mashaba was so busy hitting out at his critics that the small matter of him going to the most wins by a Bafana Bafana coach with Tuesday’s 1-0 victory against Senegal escaped him.
In another milestone‚ Bafana notched up their first victory against Senegal in seven matches in the Nelson Mandela Challenge international friendly match at Orlando Stadium‚ courtesy of Mpho Makola’s 79th minute long-range stunner.
Mashaba‚ in his fourth stint as head coach‚ went past Clive Barker’s record in his 41st match. Barker’s 22 wins came from 43 games. Mashaba said he had been unaware of the record.
“I’m happy to hear that. I wasn’t aware of it. These are the things that spur me to go on and look for excellence‚” the Bafana coach said.
Bafana bounced back from a roundly criticised 3-1 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying defeat against Mauritania on a hot artificial surface in Nouakchott on Saturday.
The South Africans clearly enjoyed coming back to a brisk Johannesburg evening and played attractive passing football on a lush‚ green surface that was soft underfoot. They outplayed 38th-ranked Senegal‚ who‚ it has to be said‚ looked the less motivated of the two teams.
“I think there isn’t much we can say‚ but to say bravo to our boys — they played very well‚” Mashaba said.
“It was most unfortunate we couldn’t score more‚ we should have scored another three goals. We played against a very good side. We can only hope this victory rubs off onto our coming matches.
“Tactically‚ what makes me happy is that what we did in training is what we did in the match. We were working on going forward‚ getting into the opposition half quickly and start playing combinations. And that’s what we did.”
Makola made an impressive debut at 29 years old that mirrored the form he has shown for Orlando Pirates. The midfielder‚ who scored a long-range brace for Bucs in a 4-1 league win against Chippa United at Orlando Stadium on August 18‚ had the confidence to continue shooting from distance against Senegal even though he had missed four earlier chances.
The result was a thunderous winner for the South Africans.
“We always work on shooting from outside the box‚” Mashaba said.
“I mean we should have scored in the first half‚ with Thamsanqa Gabuza’s shot that hit the bar. Score that one and maybe a lot of goals will follow.”
It was a disappointing return to national colours for 1860 Munich midfielder Daylon Claasen‚ who was replaced by Jabulani Shongwe six minutes before the break.
“You could see the game was too heavy for him and the pace too much for him. There winger on their right was killing us‚” Mashaba said.
Senegal coach Aliou Cisse said his side were not disgraced: “South Africa are a good team and I’m not really surprised by the result. It was the result they had against Mauritania that did surprise me.”
Senegal were coming off a 2-0 Afcon victory against Namibia in Windhoek on Saturday.
Fighting Shakes dethrones Barker
Shakes Mashaba was so busy hitting out at his critics that the small matter of him going to the most wins by a Bafana Bafana coach with Tuesday’s 1-0 victory against Senegal escaped him.
In another milestone‚ Bafana notched up their first victory against Senegal in seven matches in the Nelson Mandela Challenge international friendly match at Orlando Stadium‚ courtesy of Mpho Makola’s 79th minute long-range stunner.
Mashaba‚ in his fourth stint as head coach‚ went past Clive Barker’s record in his 41st match. Barker’s 22 wins came from 43 games. Mashaba said he had been unaware of the record.
“I’m happy to hear that. I wasn’t aware of it. These are the things that spur me to go on and look for excellence‚” the Bafana coach said.
Bafana bounced back from a roundly criticised 3-1 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying defeat against Mauritania on a hot artificial surface in Nouakchott on Saturday.
The South Africans clearly enjoyed coming back to a brisk Johannesburg evening and played attractive passing football on a lush‚ green surface that was soft underfoot. They outplayed 38th-ranked Senegal‚ who‚ it has to be said‚ looked the less motivated of the two teams.
“I think there isn’t much we can say‚ but to say bravo to our boys — they played very well‚” Mashaba said.
“It was most unfortunate we couldn’t score more‚ we should have scored another three goals. We played against a very good side. We can only hope this victory rubs off onto our coming matches.
“Tactically‚ what makes me happy is that what we did in training is what we did in the match. We were working on going forward‚ getting into the opposition half quickly and start playing combinations. And that’s what we did.”
Makola made an impressive debut at 29 years old that mirrored the form he has shown for Orlando Pirates. The midfielder‚ who scored a long-range brace for Bucs in a 4-1 league win against Chippa United at Orlando Stadium on August 18‚ had the confidence to continue shooting from distance against Senegal even though he had missed four earlier chances.
The result was a thunderous winner for the South Africans.
“We always work on shooting from outside the box‚” Mashaba said.
“I mean we should have scored in the first half‚ with Thamsanqa Gabuza’s shot that hit the bar. Score that one and maybe a lot of goals will follow.”
It was a disappointing return to national colours for 1860 Munich midfielder Daylon Claasen‚ who was replaced by Jabulani Shongwe six minutes before the break.
“You could see the game was too heavy for him and the pace too much for him. There winger on their right was killing us‚” Mashaba said.
Senegal coach Aliou Cisse said his side were not disgraced: “South Africa are a good team and I’m not really surprised by the result. It was the result they had against Mauritania that did surprise me.”
Senegal were coming off a 2-0 Afcon victory against Namibia in Windhoek on Saturday.
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