Fatigue a concern for Bafana ahead of World Cup matches
National coach Hugo Broos will be concerned at the potential fatigue of the core of his team — drawn from Mamelodi Sundowns — when Bafana Bafana play two crucial 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe in June.
With Group C favourites — and perennial Bafana stumbling block, Nigeria having started poorly with draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, SA have a real chance of qualifying for their first World Cup, other than as hosts since 2002.
Bafana (on three points) could have been in a better position than second place to Rwanda (four). Bafana started with a 2-1 home win against Benin, but lost 2-0 away against Rwanda. Buoyed by their best finish at an Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in 24 years with bronze in Ivory Coast in February, SA can put themselves in the driving seat with strong results against Nigeria in Uyo on June 7 and Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein on June 11.
The winners of the nine groups qualify for the first 48-team World Cup in Mexico, Canada and the US.
Broos’ team at the Nations Cup was built around Sundowns’ players with at least seven in his starting XI.
Apart from Downs possessing most of the best players in the Premier Soccer League, their players have been toughened by competing every year in the knockout stages of the Caf Champions League, including the last two semifinals.
In June, Broos will have some concerns about the number of games Sundowns have played — 58 by the end of the campaign — as they have competed across six competitions in 2023-24, including two continental tournaments, winning the inaugural African Football League.
Sundowns complete that manic schedule with a clash against Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup final at Mbombela Stadium on June 1, just five days before Bafana meet Nigeria away.
Sundowns’ players are hardened, one saw that at the Nations Cup. But that many matches in a campaign and the travel involved, and Broos will hope he has a national team that is not on the verge of collapse in June.
Joshua Smith, now high-performance manager at AmaZulu, served the Bafana coach Stuart Baxter that reached the quarterfinals at the 2019 Nations Cup. He sees pros and cons to the Sundowns players’ schedule for Broos.
“I don’t think there will be a problem with motivation,” he said, acknowledging playing for a place in the World Cup will serve that purpose.
“Having such a strong core of that group being Sundowns players who have played consecutively in the Champions League [each year], so they understand the demands of back-to-back congested football, you’ve got a very strong group of players there.
“They’ve definitely built that chronic fitness where they’ve got this loading profile over the course of many seasons, so this is not going to be a shock to their systems.
“The biggest thing will be management. They [Bafana’s fitness and conditioning staff] will have to make sure the type of physical stuff these players do when they get into camp focuses on keeping them fresh, reducing residual fatigue, making sure you’re getting the most out of them versus trying to do anything to improve fitness.”