South Africa will know their fate on Tuesday when the draw is made for the 2017 Cosafa Cup that this year will be staged in the North West province from June 25-July 9.
South Africa claimed a record-equalling fourth title in Namibia last year with essentially the national Under-23 team that was bound for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the addition of goalkeeper Reyaad Pieterse.
What the composition of the squad will be for this year remains to be seen‚ though the tournament is played in the weeks before the 2018 African Nations Championship qualifiers where South Africa take on Botswana over two legs.
It would make sense for Safa to use the Cosafa Cup as a build-up to that‚ though at the same time it could also provide a good opportunity for newly-appointed senior national team coach Stuart Baxter to spend time on the training pitch with the squad ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against Cape Verde the following month.
The format of the competition will remain the same as last year‚ with South Africa entering at the quarterfinal stage in the second week.
Comoros are the only one of the 14 Cosafa sides to withdraw from the Southern African championship and they will be replaced by East African guest nation Tanzania‚ who have competed twice before in 1997 and 2015.
The eight lowest positioned sides to enter the first round have for the first time been determined via Cosafa’s own rankings system that takes into account previous performance in the regional competition.
This means that eight nations to enter in the first round group phase‚ where they will be drawn into two pools each containing four teams‚ are Seychelles‚ Mauritius‚ Zimbabwe‚ Angola‚ Tanzania‚ Malawi‚ Mozambique and Madagascar.
The top two teams in each pool advance to the knockout stage‚ where they will be joined by the remaining six sides in the quarterfinals - South Africa‚ Botswana‚ Swaziland‚ Namibia‚ Zambia and Lesotho.
There will be seeds in the quarterfinals‚ namely South Africa‚ Botswana‚ Swaziland and Namibia‚ meaning those sides cannot be drawn against one another.
Potential opponents for South Africa are therefore either of the winners of the two first round pools or Zambia and Lesotho.
The four quarterfinal winners carry on through the Cup competition‚ while the losers enter the Plate tournament that was last year won by Namibia.
Along with South Africa‚ Zambia and Zimbabwe have each won four Cosafa Cup titles since the tournament was first played in 1997‚ with Angola (three wins) and Namibia the only other teams to lift the trophy. - TMG Digital/TMG Sport
Cosafa Cup could give Baxter an opportunity to spend more time with new players ahead of the World Cup qualifiers
South Africa will know their fate on Tuesday when the draw is made for the 2017 Cosafa Cup that this year will be staged in the North West province from June 25-July 9.
South Africa claimed a record-equalling fourth title in Namibia last year with essentially the national Under-23 team that was bound for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the addition of goalkeeper Reyaad Pieterse.
What the composition of the squad will be for this year remains to be seen‚ though the tournament is played in the weeks before the 2018 African Nations Championship qualifiers where South Africa take on Botswana over two legs.
It would make sense for Safa to use the Cosafa Cup as a build-up to that‚ though at the same time it could also provide a good opportunity for newly-appointed senior national team coach Stuart Baxter to spend time on the training pitch with the squad ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against Cape Verde the following month.
The format of the competition will remain the same as last year‚ with South Africa entering at the quarterfinal stage in the second week.
Comoros are the only one of the 14 Cosafa sides to withdraw from the Southern African championship and they will be replaced by East African guest nation Tanzania‚ who have competed twice before in 1997 and 2015.
The eight lowest positioned sides to enter the first round have for the first time been determined via Cosafa’s own rankings system that takes into account previous performance in the regional competition.
This means that eight nations to enter in the first round group phase‚ where they will be drawn into two pools each containing four teams‚ are Seychelles‚ Mauritius‚ Zimbabwe‚ Angola‚ Tanzania‚ Malawi‚ Mozambique and Madagascar.
The top two teams in each pool advance to the knockout stage‚ where they will be joined by the remaining six sides in the quarterfinals - South Africa‚ Botswana‚ Swaziland‚ Namibia‚ Zambia and Lesotho.
There will be seeds in the quarterfinals‚ namely South Africa‚ Botswana‚ Swaziland and Namibia‚ meaning those sides cannot be drawn against one another.
Potential opponents for South Africa are therefore either of the winners of the two first round pools or Zambia and Lesotho.
The four quarterfinal winners carry on through the Cup competition‚ while the losers enter the Plate tournament that was last year won by Namibia.
Along with South Africa‚ Zambia and Zimbabwe have each won four Cosafa Cup titles since the tournament was first played in 1997‚ with Angola (three wins) and Namibia the only other teams to lift the trophy. - TMG Digital/TMG Sport
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending
Latest Videos