Following two weeks that would have had even Sir Alex Ferguson at his wits end, Shakes Mashaba appears unfazed by the club-versus-country row that plagued his preparation for the less glamorous African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers. The Bafana Bafana coach is in Mauritius to hopefully get the national team, which carries a healthy 3-0 advantage from the first leg played at the Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto, past the preliminary hurdle of a competition that has seen Mashaba at loggerheads with the Premier Soccer League's (PSL) top clubs over the availability of players.South Africa face Mauritius at the Stade Anjalay this afternoon in the second leg of their Chan qualifier.It's a side few would recognise, but the coach has hardly moaned. The tournament is only meant for players active in their domestic leagues, but Mashaba, for the first round in particular, has not had the best kind of preparation, having spent his time scrambling for players.story_article_left1"It is unfortunate that most of the time we lose our direction and our focus. When we started this team, we said we're looking for young players who can compete and that are hungry to wear the national team jersey," Mashaba said."Roping in some new blood in the team always does us good because we will be able to move closer to our dream - to build a convincing team for the upcoming tournaments. And we are moving towards that goal confidently."Should they progress to the next phase, as expected, Bafana will take on either Angola or Swaziland, with the first leg scheduled for the weekend of October 16-18, which is a date outside the Fifa calendar.Due to this conundrum and the fact that some PSL clubs had begun their pre-season training just days before Bafana hosted Mauritius, Mashaba was forced to cancel two training sessions.Bafana did not look like a side that had not been taken through their paces when they comfortably thrashed Mauritius 3-0, with a goal from Thamsanqa Gabuza and a brace from Siphelele Ntshangase.Instead of blaming the clubs for his headaches, Mashaba applauded those who helped him string together a starting lineup in the first match and a squad of 18 players to travel to Mauritius.story_article_right2"They stuck to their programmes while on holiday and it is thanks to the clubs that we have players that aren't suspect as far as the fitness levels are concerned," the coach said."I need to remind everyone that we continue to build a team that will see us through these qualifiers, the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and to the next World Cup and even looking as far as 2022. That's why we're not changing our tune and opening the door for every player that continues to impress. As I speak now, there are some we feel can widen our base in terms of selection. I think they can help us in the next Afcon qualifiers."Mashaba will attempt an unchanged selection ahead of the next Chan qualifier, especially if it is against Angola, who narrowly lost 2-1 to Bafana's cream of the crop in Cape Town last month."We agree that we beat a very good side at the time, and consistency in picking the team will help us," he said...