SA Under-23 coach David Notoane is not one to make excuses.
The former Santos striker is not going to start complaining now that he's been handed the poisoned chalice of managing a team forever resurrected on the eve of its one major tournament - the Olympics.
Notoane was appointed by Safa less than two weeks before he had to name his team to face Angola in an Olympic play-off. The post for the Under 23 coach had remained vacant from the time Owen da Gama's team was eliminated in the first round of the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
"Is it a concern ... listen ... no," said Notoane when asked of the time he has to prepare his side for the qualifiers.
"At the end of the day if you concern yourself about what you don't have you'll spend a lot of energy focusing on things that are not going to help you."
Notoane will have only four days with his team in camp before they meet Angola in Luanda on Friday. The return game is on March 26 at the Bidvest Stadium in Johannesburg with the winner set to meet Zimbabwe or Mozambique.
If Notoane's team emerge as winners in the mini Cosafa qualifiers they will go to the Confederation of African Football (Caf) eight-nation tournament which will be played in Egypt in November. Three top finishers in that tournament are guaranteed to represent Africa in Tokyo 2020 and Notoane believes his team is capable of going to its second successive Olympic tournament.
"Look, I wouldn't have taken this job if I didn't believe," he said, "I know most of these players as I have worked with them before in the under-20 national team. We don't have much time but so too the other teams.
"We've got to do our best with the available time we have." Notoane is still confident despite losing the services of English-based centre-back Nikola Tavares, who had featured in Croatia's under-20 team before.
"The challenge we had with him is that his passport expired actually and the process of getting it was going to take longer. We decided let's skip this one and perhaps bring him back in the future."
The good news for Notoane was the decision by AS Monaco to include former Orlando Pirates striker Lyle Foster (18) in the squad that faced Lille on Friday night.
Other than Foster, Notoane has included Luther Singh (GD Chaves, Portugal), Liam Jordan (Koge FC, Denmark), Thabo Cele (Cova de Piedade, Portugal) and Kabelo Seriba (Metta FC, Latvia) among the foreign-based contingent.
Such is the limited time that Notoane has that he will only name his captain a day or two before meeting Angola. SuperSport United midfielder Teboho Mokoena is seen as one capable of leading the team...