Breaking the hoodoo

Shakes Mashaba has made an already tricky trip to Nigeria tougher by suggesting that poor officiating tomorrow night could cost Bafana Bafana their unbeaten record in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.

South Africa left for Uyo yesterday afternoon having already booked a place at next year's tournament in Equatorial Guinea following Saturday's 2-1 victory over Sudan in Durban.

Mashaba expects his men to treat the clash against the Super Eagles, who need maximum points to qualify, with the same intensity.

But the Bafana coach said the man in the middle holds all the cards.

"The only thing with these games is to hope that we get the best match officials. If we get the best then we are confident of results coming our way. Nigeria are in trouble and they need this [win].

"The game is also about more than just the three points because of the history between the two rival countries," said Mashaba.

"Nigerians never want to lose to South Africans and that alone will make this a humdinger of a match. We also have an assignment to break the hoodoo that we are going to lose when we play Nigeria."

Bafana were held to a goalless draw by Nigeria in Cape Town two months ago.

Mashaba was hard on his players in their final training session at the Nike Centre in Soweto yesterday and called on them to keep possession of the ball in the dying minutes of the game.

In their 2-1 win against Sudan at the weekend, Bafana allowed their opponents to dictate terms, forcing them to park the bus to defend their lead.

"I see them improving game by game," said Mashaba.

"I think from our opening game our boys have been improving and we've worked on that."

He will be forced to make at least one change against Nigeria, with Thulani Serero, goal-scorer and man-of-the-match against Sudan, out with a hamstring injury. But he has reinforcements after strikers Kermit Erasmus and Lehlohonolo Majoro returned to action and trained with the side yesterday.

Bafana's qualifying campaign has been built from excellence away from home, but arguably their best performance was the goalless draw against Nigeria in Cape Town on September 10.

While the result masked Bafana's overall dominance, the impressive part of the game was South Africa's control of the midfield battle. With their big bruisers, the Super Eagles were expected to walk all over South Africa.

Led by the diminutive but combative Andile Jali, the smaller but hardier South African midfield unit landed the bigger punches, leaving John Obi Mikel's unit dazed and flustered.

A calling card was left by the South Africans and it has resonated throughout the qualification phase.

They took the game to the visitors and in what was a rare sight at South Africa-Nigeria games, the visitors were a clear second-best, especially in the physical exchanges.

Nigeria were surprised that day and were rather fortunate, due to Bafana's erratic finishing, that they escaped with a point.

If ever South Africa need inspiration to record their first win against Nigeria in Nigeria, they must draw from that Cape Town game to know that their continental nemesis is far from unbeatable.