Despite succumbing to a 4-2 aggregate defeat against Zambia, and failing to qualify for the 2018 Chan tournament, Thabo Senong says that Bafana Bafana fulfilled their outcomes.

The national team were hit with a number of player withdrawals prior to the two-legged affair against Chipolopolo, which gave a number of youngsters and players who have never played for the national team the opportunity for game time, which Senong insists was the goal.

‘If you think about it, we have worked with different groups of players throughout the Chan qualifiers and the Cosafa Cup camps. Despite the players coming in and going out of the squad, that gave us a good opportunity to give other players a chance to play at international level,’ he told safa.net.

‘It was good discoveries, and going back to their clubs, these players will benefit a lot.

‘But as the technical team, we are very proud that we have managed to unleash a lot of potential future players that will be taken seriously by their clubs, and some will be considered seriously for the main Bafana Bafana squad in future.

‘Throughout the four matches – two against Botswana and a further two against Zambia – we have managed to give 35 players a chance to play at this level and to learn under these conditions.

‘We have given about 15 former U20 players an opportunity to grow and learn from this kind of environment, and this will benefit the future Olympic Team, which will have players who would have played in Bafana Bafana already.

‘The exercise will help some of these senior players, because most of them are fringe players at their clubs – Sibusiso Khumalo, Kgotso Moleko, Mario Booysen – they will go back to their respective clubs with a lot of confidence, and that might help them to be considered by the respective coaches of the clubs,’ he added.

Senong took the time to thank those clubs who released their players for the qualifiers, in addition to revealing how continuation would be ensured.

‘It was a good exercise for some young players to be in the structures and also to increase the big pool of Bafana Bafana. There were players that impressed, and this will be a good experience for them going back to their clubs and it will contribute positively to their football.

‘I would like to say a big thank you to all the clubs that managed to release their players, and we know it was not easy, as they also had to move their programmes around to accommodate us.

‘On the overall, this has been a good and fruitful exercise where all the stakeholders have learnt a lot. From now on we know that Bafana Bafana has a big pool of players that the head coach can always look at whenever he wants to build his team to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, as well as the 2019 Afcon tournament.

‘All these youngsters that have been part of the Cosafa/Chan exercise will never be lost in the system, because next year in February-March they will start their route to qualifying for U23 Afcon, and will follow that with qualifications for the Olympic Games

‘This exercise has helped a lot because we believe the likes of Sandile Mthethwa will get more game time, and the same goes for Sipho Mbule, Tercious Malepe, Jamie Webber and Masilake Phohlongo. I believe this whole exercise was about rebuilding the future Olympic team and we have achieved that,’ he concluded.

Photo: Safa.net