Pitso Mosimane is expected to make wholesale changes when South Africa face Egypt in a friendly at Cairo International Stadium on Sunday night (9pm), with several players who had limited involvement in the recent Africa Cup of Nations qualifying victories likely to start.
Mosimane used his strongest available line-ups as Bafana Bafana defeated Guinea and Eritrea, results which moved them to the top of Group D. The Egypt match will instead give a number of fringe and emerging players the opportunity to show they can compete at international level.
Sipho Chaine, Ricardo Goss, Nkosinathi Sibisi, Fawaaz Basadien, Khulumani Ndamani, Shandre Campbell, Puso Dithejane, Tashreeq Matthews and Cassius Mailula are among those expected to be included.
The starting XI is set to consist mainly of players who either played little or did not feature in the two qualifiers.
“It is a friendly game and we need to see what they are capable of at this level,” Mosimane said from South Africa’s training camp in Cairo on Friday afternoon.
“So we plead for patience and support for these youngsters. The country must understand that we have played the qualifiers [against Guinea and Eritrea] and we are done.
“That is the most important thing. It is important to build for the next Fifa World Cup, and if we don’t put them in now, when are we going to see them?”
The coach said the friendly against the Pharaohs was an important opportunity because South Africa will not have another such match before next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
“We do not have friendly games until the Africa Cup of Nations next year, so this is the only chance they have. They are breaking through and we need to see what we have in our ranks,” he added.
Mosimane acknowledged the scale of the challenge posed by Egypt, but said the inexperienced players needed to be tested against strong opposition.
“Unfortunately, we have a big team [Egypt] that we have to play against on Sunday. The challenge is we have to let them [the players] swim with the sharks, but we have nothing to lose,” he said.
South Africa will be without Mamelodi Sundowns midfielders Bathusi Aubaas and Teboho Mokoena, with Mosimane confirming that neither player would be considered because of injury.
