South Africa will come up against a well-oiled machine that plays much like a club side when they face Swaziland in their 2016 COSAFA Castle Cup semifinal in Windhoek on Wednesday. That’s the view of Swaziland coach Harris Bulunga‚ who has masterminded a turnaround in the fortunes of the country that sees them not only in the semifinals of the regional championship‚ but also still in contention for a place at the African Nations Cup finals in Gabon next year. The same side that beat Guinea home and away in the qualifiers travelled to Namibia and after an opening 2-2 draw with Zimbabwe in which they were the better team‚ Swaziland went on to thrash Seychelles (4-0) and defeat Madagascar (1-0) to top their group at the COSAFA Castle Cup. They held a locally-based Zambian side to a 0-0 draw in Sunday’s quarterfinal‚ though wrongly had a goal by Felix Badenhorst ruled out for offside. Justice prevailed when they claimed a shoot-out win to set up a meeting with South Africa.Bulunga says the fact that the core of the group has remained the same for the last two years has been one of the factor in their success.“It’s a combination of factors‚” he said.“We identified the current group of players two years ago and have been working with this current group for quite some time‚ just making a few tweaks here and there.“The chemistry between the players is evident‚ they play more like a club team. We took into consideration the form of one club in the country‚ Mbabane Swallows‚ and of the 20 players [at the COSAFA Castle Cup] they contributed 10‚ although not all of them are in the starting line-up. But it helps to have that cohesion in the team.“We have also worked hard‚ playing a lot of friendly matches. Before the team would be inactive for a long time‚ but now every month we have a match or two. That keeps the momentum up.”Swaziland has the tournament's leading scorer in Badenhorst‚ who has netted five goals so far‚ which will only grow his reputation with a number of clubs in PSL and DR Congo said to be monitoring his progress.“He’s a gem‚” Bulunga said.“His main strength is his heading ability and composure in front of goal. I believe he deserves the chance to play in a professional league‚ so I am hoping that the stories that are coming out that teams are interested in him are true so that he can go out there and gain experience of rubbing shoulders with other professionals. That will obviously benefit my team.“He still needs to work a little bit on his work-rate. We are happy with what he does but as a coach I always demand more. So if he can up his game a little bit‚ he can lift the team to even greater heights.”Swaziland missed out on the quarterfinals of the COSAFA Castle Cup last year on goals scored only‚ going through the group phase unbeaten‚ before losing out on top spot to Madasgacar.Bulunga says the confidence gained in that tournament has been the springboard for their current success.“Playing in South Africa last year was crucial for us because that’s where we got the confidence. Before that we were losing a lot of matches‚ but since then we have had a good run.“We went into the Afcon qualifiers with the same group and the belief that we could not play against any team without fear. That’s what we have brought here [to Namibia].”Including friendlies‚ Swaziland have played seven matches in the past 24 days‚ winning six and drawing one‚ and only conceding two goals.“We are able to shut the back door‚ if we don’t concede then we always believe we can score. We defend very well and we believe in our transition. We believe that we can score against any team‚ especially the bigger teams who give us more space to play.”If South Africa overcome the Swazis they will face one of DR Congo or Botswana in Saturday’s final.The losers of the semifinal matches will play for third place earlier on the same day...