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Problems for Bafana game
10/03/2008 16:57 - (SA)
Johannesburg - A game of diminishing importance and relevance was further affected on Monday with disclosures that Zimbabwe were struggling to piece together a suitable combination to face Bafana Bafana in a friendly international at Germiston Stadium on Tuesday night (kickoff 19:00).
Neither team is scheduled to include overseas-based participants, with Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira further hampered by the non-availability of players from PSL clubs Mamelodi Sundowns, Santos, Platinum Stars and Bloemfontein Celtic because of Premier League commitments on Wednesday.
Now, it has surfaced, that Zimbabwe, late replacements for Malawi for the game at the gloomy Germiston Stadium, are being stymied by a growing list of players who are either not being released for a game that falls outside of the Fifa international calendar - or are simply disinclined to perform because of the disjointed manner in which the game was arranged.
Sundowns have already pronounced key Zimbabwe players Ezrom Nyandoro and Peter Ndlovu as unavailable because of the defending PSL champions' critical game against Santos on Wednesday and Orlando Pirates have put their foot down and threatened not to make players available for the visitors because of "the lateness of the request for their releases."
Not officially informed
And to top the hazy and hectic efforts to field something like a respectable international line-up, a number of other Zimbabwe players have signified they would not be available "because we have only read about the game in the press and no one has informed us officially."
Parreira, meanwhile, is looking to the game as part of his proclaimed policy to extend as wide a net as possible in examining candidates for South Africa's 2010 World Cup squad.
But with his hands tied like a warrior going into battle with depleted and affected armoury - and the players only earmarked to have one training session together - Parreira is unlikely to achieve much enlightenment in his quest for a respectable World Cup squad.
Players whom the coach could be viewing with a special degree of interest in his depleted squad, however, are Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune, Moroka Swallows central defender Bevan Fransman and Orlando Pirates striker Excellent Walaza.
But the youthful Walaza was an absentee from Pirates' mundane goalless draw against bottom-of-the-log Black Leopards on Saturday night and there are lingering doubts about his fitness.
And with Nyandoro and Ndlovu, among others, out of the Zimbabwean squad and key players like goalkeeper Tapuwa Kapini, Tenashe Nengomasha and Chiefs' Bashera doubtful, Zimbabwe's new Brazilian coach, Jose Valinhos, may find himself a little in the dark at Germiston Stadium regarding the potential quality of his team.
- SAPA
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