Cosafa Cup gives Bafana coach Baxter an opportunity to gather intelligence

Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter has already had a useful by-product as part of being at the Cosafa Cup in Polokwane in the form of intelligence gathering on one of his team's 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying opponents.

The Seychelles at this Cosafa‚ where Baxter has brought a youthful team to open Bafana's tournament against the winners of Group A on Sunday‚ have shown themselves so far in Polokwane to be no more than the expected cannon-fodder of South Africa's Afcon qualifying group‚ which also includes Libya and Nigeria.

But that’s the sort of talk that Baxter is trying to avoid about any opponents.

He has reason to‚ because it was that sort of approach that saw Bafana‚ in trademark fashion‚ slip on a banana peel in their failed World Cup qualifying campaign last year with defeats against Cape Verde Islands.

The Seychelles are also an island archipelago‚ but that’s where the similarity stops.

Cape Verde have overseas-based players and can be competitive at Afcon finals tournaments. Seychelles do not.

At the Cosafa Seychelles have looked the weaker team opening with a 1-1 draw against another Indian Ocean minnow‚ Comoros‚ then improved marginally in Tuesday night's 1-1 draw against Madagascar.

“I think when we play against Seychelles‚ first and foremost is to win the game. Because that has been a problem for South Africa‚” Baxter cautioned.

“We don't need to go back more than one year [to see it].

“So win the game first. And that demands a mental steel‚ that demands tightness and professionalism.

“And I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say‚ 'No‚ no‚ we want to improve our goal difference and score loads of goals'.

“One‚ we don't have a history of scoring loads of goals. And two‚ we do have a history of treading on a banana skin.

“So let's make sure that we all keep our feet on the ground first and say‚ 'While building this new team‚ I want to knock those over'. And when we take the three points then we'll see.”

Baxter said he expects a tough game in the Cosafa from any one of the teams from Group A‚ which also includes Mozambique‚ who recovered from a 2-1 opening defeat against Madagascar with a far more convincing 3-0 win against Comoros on Tuesday.

“They’ve been quite interesting. Some of them have been very physical‚ and think it’s something that we saw when we played Cosafa last time‚ which is that people are wound up for these games – they don’t take them lightly‚” the Bafana coach said.

South Africa began their 2019 Afcon qualifying Group E campaign with a shock 2-0 away win against Nigeria last year.

They resume against Libya at home in September then meet Seychelles home and away in October.