4 days ago
Bafana need to bring their scoring boots in Cosafa semis — Khumalo
Bafana Bafana Cosafa Cup head coach Vela Khumalo said his players needed to bring their scoring boots in the semifinal.
Bafana have progressed to the next round of the tournament after playing to a goalless draw against Mauritius in the last fixture of group A at the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.
The draw was enough to book SA a spot in the last four of the tournament by topping Group A after Zimbabwe beat Mozambique 3-1.
Bafana will now play the winners of Group D in the semis.
Khumalo said his players had been struggling to convert their chances throughout the group stage fixtures.
However, he was confident that things would change in the knockout rounds.
'More than anything in this tournament so far, it has been us not scoring goals,' he said.
'Our boys need to bring their scoring boots.
'Our session [in the next couple of days] will be more on finishing, and that is exactly what we have been all about.
'But, gradually, it will come back and we will manage to score goals.
'We just need to score goals because in terms of the performance and the play, we do so well.
'We did not start well.
'You can't afford to lose your first game. It puts you under pressure, and that on its own affected the way we played.
'We have been missing some chances because we were not relaxed inside the box.
'We did not have the extra touch because we were thinking that we had lost a game, now we need to catch up.
'We were catching up all the time, and that affected the way we needed to play and be composed in the box.
'But now that we are in the semis, it is going to be a new ball game altogether.
'We are all equal, and we'll start like everyone else.
'I am hopeful. I think we will do well.'
Reflecting on their game against Mauritius, Khumalo said: 'Let me start by congratulating our opponents, Mauritius, they gave us a good assignment to work on.
'We couldn't break them, they played low block, and they wanted to play from set-piece in standard situations where they wanted to hurt us.
'We were well aware of that, but what has always been a problem with us since the beginning of the tournament was not being clinical.'
The Herald
