Bafana Bafana midfielder Hlompho Kekana lives for the moment. The Mamelodi Sundowns captain refuses to let his mind dwell too much on the past as he prefers to digest the impact of the results as they come.
Asked about the effect of Bafana's back-to-back 2-1 losses against Cape Verde in the Fifa World Cup Group D qualifiers in September, Kekana, who now shares a record with David Beckham of scoring twice from his own half, chose to talk about the upcoming two do-or-die matches against Senegal.
The 32-year-old also had no opinion on how he will feel if Bafana were to come unstuck on their march to Russia should they fail to beat Senegal in the first match on Friday night at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. Kickoff is at 7pm.
"In my life I always look on the positive and things that I know that you at least have some sort of control in terms of the outcomes," said Kekana. "As a team, we have adopted a positive mind about our journey to Russia even though we have had obstacles on our way. We really want to win those games against Senegal as we know we won't go to Russia if we drop any points now."With Bafana to play the first leg of the Senegal matches without suspended Andile Jali and Bongani Zungu, Kekana's role cannot be overemphasised as the Sundowns strongman looks set to be paired with Kamohelo Mokotjo in midfield.
Kekana has had an on-and-off role in the past four qualifiers. He is yet to finish a match, having started two, left unused on the bench once and come off the bench in the last 20 minutes against Burkina Faso last month.
"We played Burkina Faso and won when we were written off by almost everyone. So in the match against Senegal we are up against the same kind of pressure. If we handle it like we did against Burkina Faso, I'm sure we'll get a positive result out of it," said Kekana, adding that he will leave it to coach Stuart Baxter on whether he starts on Friday.
"For me it's always an honour just to be called to the team. The experience you get there is amazing. Given a chance to play, I can assure everyone that I will fight with all I have to get the needed result against Senegal. The good thing is that we know a lot about our opponents as we last played them in November last year."Just like Bafana, who have had six different scorers in their past four qualifiers, Senegal also had six scorers with the same goals as Bafana.
Diafra Sakho, Moussa Sow, Sadio Mane, Cheikh Ndoye, Ismaila Sarr and Keita Balde got the goals that have put The Lions of Teranga on the summit of Group D with eight points after those goals produced two 2-0 victories against Cape Verde and two draws - home (2-2) and away (0-0) - against the Stallions of Burkina Faso.
The mood in the Senegalese camp is sky high after their 2-0 away win in Cape Verde last month. There is a belief now in this team that they can emulate the class of 2002 which became the second national team from Africa, after Cameroon in 1990, to make it to the last eight of the World Cup.
Senegal coach Aliou Cisse, who captained Senegal in that World Cup, has been credited with reviving the fortunes of the current side. And this has led to one of the key figures in Cisse's team, Saliou Ciss, pronouncing in Fifa.com this week that they targeted qualifying for Russia from the onset.
Of the Polokwane match, Ciss, who has played the full 90 minutes in all their qualifiers, said they are expecting a tough match against Baxter's men and that they won't make a mistake of underestimating Bafana."Not any old team can take away a good result from South Africa, but we are aware of the responsibility resting on our shoulders," said the midfield player who counted the stars of the 2002 team - Lamine Diatta, El Hadji Diouf and Khalilou Fadiga - as a vital cog to the success of the current team as they constantly provide advice.
Bafana and The Lions of Teranga have only met twice in competitive matches, both encounters ending in 1-1 draws in the group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2008 (Ghana) and 2015 (Equatorial Guinea).
Group D permutations
Only victories in Polokwane on Friday and away in Dakar on November 14 will take Bafana to Russia;
A draw on Friday is likely to earn Senegal a place in Russia given their position and superior goal difference of +4 compared to zero of Burkina Faso and -4 of Cape Verde; and
Senegal can afford to lose in Polokwane but still qualify for Russia if they draw their last match at home on November 14.
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