International friendly: S’Africa hold Eagles in Nelspruit

Posted by admin Headlines, Soccer, Sports Sunday, March 29th, 2015

Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba was delighted with his side’s showing in their 1-1 draw with Nigeria in Nelspruit on Sunday An 85th minute scorcher by Russian-based Ahmed Musa – who captained the Super Eagles side on the day – and an added time strike by Mamelodi Sundowns’s Bongani Zungu ensured a share of the spoils in the friendly international at the Mbombela Stadium.

“I would like to say congratulations to the boys, we played very well. I think our combinations worked well today, we created numerous chances to win the game but didn’t take them, but we played well and well done to the players today,” Mashaba told reporters at the post-match conference

The industrious Andile Jali squandered a glorious opportunity to head the home side into the lead in the 63rd minute when he missed a penalty although Nigerian goalkeeper, George Akpey did very well to deny the Belgian-based man with a one handed save. Nonetheless, Mashaba believes they had numerous chances before then to go ahead.

“I don’t want to talk about the missed penalty, because like I said, we had numerous chances to win the game before and after the penalty to go ahead. But it was a good performance, the boys should hold their heads up high,” Mashaba said.

He lamented the lack of leadership on the field, citing it could have helped the younger men out on the field seeing they were the dominant side throughout.

“We were all over these guys, a quarter of the game and that’s when you need leaders to control the boys and take over. But it [the game] has given us an idea as to where we are headed in carrying out our vision and also something to work on for our upcoming games,” Mashaba said.

The draw is Bafana’s fourth in 12 official matches with the Super Eagles and third in three games after their successive draws in the 2015 Afcon qualifiers last year.

-Vanguardwp_posts