Mashaba is using the tournament to widen the selection base for what will be a busy year, with the qualifiers for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and the 2016 African Nations Championship (Chan) starting next month. Mashaba had his first training session for the Cosafa Cup today in Johannesburg, preparing for the tournament where they start in the quarterfinals against Botswana on May 25.
“You know, there is one thing that we need to be careful of,” Mashaba said. “The different levels that we participate in, the pressure is different. You’ll hear people saying that player in the NFD has 10 goals and the player in the PSL has eight. That doesn’t mean that the player in the NFD is better. It is the pressure that is there in the different levels of participation.
“It is surprising that people are starting to talk big about Sekola now. We as the national team called him before he scored a goal, now people are not talking about him when we select him. They used to criticize him and say lomuntu ukhahlela iground (this person is just kicking the ground). Today he is a top goalscorer. Nobody says well done but we are not looking for accolades.”
