{"id":2510,"date":"2021-01-21T11:50:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T11:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=2510"},"modified":"2021-01-21T12:10:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T12:10:20","slug":"more-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2021\/01\/21\/more-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"More Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar in Rustenburg \u00a9 Satish Sekar (October 10th<\/sup> 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons Learned<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Fresh from a 1-1 draw against Namibia on Wednesday, Bafana Bafana coach, Molefi Ntseki, turned his attention to Zambia. He pointed out that the absence of Red Bull Salzburg duo Enock Mwepu and Patson Daka \u2013 isolating in Austria after being refused permission to join the Chipolopolo amid a Coronavirus scare \u2013 did not affect his preparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa also have players missing, he pointed out, before adding that he concentrated on his own team and not the opposition anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A Tough Baptism<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s opponents Zambia, meanwhile, have had a tough time. Having failed to qualify for the last two Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Finals and sitting bottom of their qualifying group without a point after two matches, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) hired former Orlando Pirates and Uganda boss, Milutin Sredojevi\u0107 (Micho).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Serbian tactician assembled a camp of 40 players for three matches (Malawi, Kenya and South Africa). Using local players, Zambia beat Malawi 1-0 on Wednesday (7th<\/sup>) \u2013 not a great performance, but friendlies are not so much about results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But worse followed. Kenya\u2019s Harambee Stars caught the Chipolopolo napping yesterday. The officiating was shocking. Where was goal-line technology when it was needed. A clear goal was not allowed \u2013 it should have been a draw, but as Micho conceded the defending was not up to standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenya snatched a 2-1 victory over Zambia. Both teams had several players missing. But things got worse as FAZ announced that captain Kabaso Chonga had been sent back to DR Congo for what was termed \u2018technical reasons.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is unlikely to ever play for Zambia again. Nevertheless, the Chipolopolo have some advantages as Micho knows South Africa from his time as coach of Orlando Pirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe will have a plan to stop us playing,\u201d Ntseki said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Focus<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ntseki said that his focus was not on opponents \u2013 even S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 e Pr\u00edncipe, although the matches were about planning for next month\u2019s qualifying matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a plan in terms of how we want to prepare the team,\u201d Ntseki said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he was clear that while the friendlies were important, the focus remained on S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 e Pr\u00edncipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Luther<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

He praised the contribution of Braga\u2019s Luther Singh, pointing out that the young striker had taken South Africa to the Under-17 World Cup previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 18 minutes Singh converted Kermit Erasmus\u2019 square ball to give South Africa the lead against the Brave Warriors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was gradually brought into the Bafana Bafana set up by previous coach Stuart Baxter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singh wants to develop both in Europe and for the national team. He thinks that the continuation \u2013 Ntseki was an assistant to Baxter \u2013 helps as they play similar football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar in Rustenburg \u00a9 Satish Sekar (October 10th 2020) Lessons Learned Fresh from a 1-1 draw against Namibia on Wednesday, Bafana Bafana coach, Molefi [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2511,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions\/2511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}