Bafana get semi-tough

After facing Cameroon, a side that plays a style similar to their rivals in Group C of the Africa Cup of Nations, on Saturday night, coach Shakes Mashaba praised Bafana Bafana's resilience in recovering from a goal down to match the Indomitable Lions physically.

The match - a one-all stalemate - was played in Libreville, Gabon, where Bafana began their pretournament camp last week to acclimatise to the hot and humid conditions they will face across the border in Equatorial Guinea.

South Africa's opening match is against Algeria next Monday.

"We got shrugged off the ball a lot. I am still not happy with how we start our games in the first 10 to 20 minutes, but we know we've got to work on that," said Mashaba after a match in which Sibusiso Vilakazi came off the bench to cancel Vincent Aboubacar's early strike.

"If you look at the first half, Cameroon were all over us, and that is why I have to say our boys' resilience was tops.

"They showed grit and we knew that in the second half we could catch them on the break. We are encouraging our boys to take the opposition on," Mashaba said.

Bafana, who were forced to test out a new central defence partnership of young Rivaldo Coetzee and Thulani Hlatshwayo, looked stronger in the second half, especially after Mashaba rang the changes.

"The only problem is the finishing. We create a couple of chances, but we don't finish," said the coach.

"Once we had possession they could not stop us because we told our players to look at the opposition, who are strong and don't pull out of tackles. We were unfortunate not to score more."

Bafana will face Mali on Wednesday at the same venue before travelling to their Mongomo base, but Mashaba regrets not being able to secure a friendly against Gabon.

"There's always this debate that the home team has the upper hand. We wanted to see how our boys would fare against a home team, but unfortunately we could not get them," the national coach explained.

Mashaba has chosen Orlando Pirates' Ayanda Gcaba to replace left back Patrick Phungwayo, who has withdrawn from the squad because of a knee injury.