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Bafana Bafana will play three friendly matches in preparation for the Orange Africa Cup of Nations South Africa 2013.
The African football spectacle takes place from 19 January to 10 February 2013.
South Africa begins the preparations for the tournament with a clash against Malawi at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday, 22 December.
Kickoff is at 18h00.
The next match will see South Africa hosting Norway on 8 January 2013 at the Cape Town Stadium, with the encounter starting at 20h15.
The last outing before AFCON 2013 will be another international friendly match against Algeria on Saturday, 12 January at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
Kickoff is at 18h00.
In the AFCON 2013 tournament, South Africa will open their campaign against Cape Verde on Saturday, 19 January; followed by a clash against Angola on Wednesday, 23 January and in the last group stage match, the South Africans will take on Morocco on Sunday, 27 January.
For the preparations, Bafana Bafana head coach Gordon Igesund will start with a training camp on Thursday, 20 December in Durban ahead of the clash with The Flames of Malawi.
A three-day break will follow after that match, and he will have a training camp that will be held in Johannesburg from 27 – 30 December.
After the New Year’s break, the squad will report back into camp on 2 January 2013 to prepare for the clash with Norway – the camp will go all the way into the AFCON 2013 tournament.
After the clash with Norway, Igesund will announce the final 23-man squad that will represent South Africa at the AFCON 2013 tournament.
“Because of the fact that we have a match against Malawi, then a three day break and then another camp, I can’t call one squad for this and one squad for the other, so that is why I have called up a squad of plus minus 30 players and keep on changing them. I would also like to give some of the players who have recently returned to action after injuries, a chance to prove themselves,” said Igesund.
“This game against Malawi is like the other five games we have already played, winning and losing is not important. What is key is to give the players one last opportunity to convince me and my technical team that we are making the right choices. Intense preparations will start in earnest when I announce the final 23 players after the match against Norway.”
The Bafana Bafana coach believes this is the time he has been waiting for in terms of moulding the team into what he wants.
“I will have the players from morning to night - and that is the period I will be using to build this team into a unit. You can’t do that when you get a team on the 20th and play on the 22nd. This for me is the most crucial period for us because I haven’t been preparing the team all I have been doing is selecting them and going to play a match. We haven’t been playing any formations, any style, all I have been doing is looking at players, so this period for me is very important,” he said.
Igesund is expected to name his squad for Malawi next week.
