- Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki is not overly concerned about the 1-1 draw against Namibia.
- He believes the younger players will only improve after getting a taste in the senior national side.
- Bafana are up next against Zambia at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Sunday.
Bafana Bafana head coach Molefi Ntseki is optimistic about his charges despite being held to a 1-1 draw by neighbours Namibia at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in an international friendly on Thursday.
In only his fourth match in charge of the national senior side, Ntseki selected a relatively young squad in preparation for back-to-back 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers against Sao Tome and Principe next month.
The match against Namibia saw 23-year-old Luther Singh net the opening goal in the first half before the Brave Warriors crawled back with an equaliser through Absalom Iimbondi.
Despite the drawn result, Ntseki knows that fielding the younger players will only benefit the national team in future as it was Bafana Bafana's first match in eleven months.
"[Experience and inexperience] these are two different things and you can't buy experience and that is why we brought in a few of the young ones just to give them the feeling of how it's like to play in the national team, "Ntseki told SABC TV during the post-match interview.
"You can't substitute experience with anything except for people who would be saying 'a player is too old to be in the national team' or 'a player is too old to play football', you can't substitute experience with anything."
He added: "I think we're happy that we managed to sweat a bit, it has been long without playing any game and I think they've shown what we wanted to see, considering that they have not been playing for a very long time.
"But I think the shape has given us 70/80 percent in terms of physical readiness so we're looking forward, we're somehow happy because some of them were cramping, I had to take them out in the first half.
"But I think they soldiered on, unfortunately we gave away a goal... [we] could have done better but some of them played at international level for the first time in the national team... I think it was a very good lesson for them."
Bafana Bafana are back in action at the same venue on Sunday afternoon when they host Zambia.
Kick-off is at 15:00.
- Compiled by Tashreeq Vardien
