Morale boosting win for Bafana

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Bafana Bafana defeated Kenya 2-1 in an international friendly played at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on Tuesday, 16 October 2012.
South Africa’s head coach Gordon Igesund made three changes to the squad that faced Poland four days ago in another international friendly match in Warsaw.
Goalkeeper Wayne Sandilands came on for Itumeleng Khune, while Thabo Nthete took the place of Luvhengo Mungomeni with Tokelo Rantie coming on for Sifiso Myeni.
Rantie repaid the faith of the coach when he scored in the 20th minute after a neat play between Bernard Parker and Lerato Chabangu.

Kenya equalised in the 72nd minute from the penalty spot, after Khumalo was adjudged to have handled in the box, and Harambee Stars captain Dennis Oliechi made no mistake from the spot kick.
But South Africa restored the lead four minutes later when Christopher Wekesa scored an own goal after a cross from Parker.
This was Igesund’s fourth match in charge, which was attended by the President of the South African Football Association Kirsten Nematandani and Vice President Dr Danny Jordaan.

“It was a very difficult win for us, and the pitch was not that playable but it’s in such conditions that will help us mentally. We played the percentage game and the not the beautiful game and we pushed them to make mistakes.
“The boys showed a lot of character. I m not overly excited with the win but the effort, performance and attitude was great. We are not there yet, we still need to play as a unit,” said Igesund.
“I am just disappointed with the goal we conceded, we should not allow teams to score goals like that. But overall it was a good excersice in terms of what we set out to do. I would say at the moment we are about 75 percent of where we should be.
“We are taking good strides forward and I was happy with the passion of the players. There are still about five or six players that I want to have a look at and then maybe my squad for AFCON will be complete.”