Fatigue a concern for Bafana in huge World Cup clashes against Nigeria, Zim
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Fatigue a concern for Bafana in huge World Cup clashes against Nigeria, Zim
Fatigue a concern for Bafana in huge World Cup clashes against Nigeria, Zim
With Sundowns' manic programme, coach Hugo Broos will hope he has a national team that is not on the verge of collapse next month.
SOLDIERING ON The Mamelodi Sundowns pair of Khuliso Mudau and Themba Zwane, pictured in the group stage match against Namibia in Korhogo, were two of the stars of Bafana Bafana's bronze medal campaign at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in January and February.
National coach Hugo Broos will have a major concern on his mind about the potential fatigue of the core of his team that comes from Mamelodi Sundowns when Bafana Bafana play two huge 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe next month.
With Group C favourites and Bafana’s perennial stumbling block Nigeria having started poorly with draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, South Africa are in with a real chance of qualifying for a first World Cup other than as hosts since 2002.
Bafana (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, South Africa can put themselves in the group 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 — seven or even eight in his starting XI. Apart from Downs possessing most of the best players in the DStv Premiership, in which they have wrapped up a seventh successive title in 2023-24, 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, the Belgian will have some concerns about the number of games Sundowns have played — 53 at present and 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 also complete that manic schedule clashing against Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup final at Mbombela Stadium on June 1, six days before Bafana meet Nigeria away.
Nigeria v South Africa, AFCON 2023 | highlights.
Sundowns’ players are hardened, one saw that at the Nations Cup. But that many matches in a campaign — add Bafana matches, and not just the seven played at high intensity at Afcon, but also throughout the season — and the travel involved, and Broos will hope he has a national team that is not on the verge of collapse next month.
Joshua Smith, now high-performance manager at AmaZulu, where he oversees the under-13s to the Premiership team in all things strength and conditioning and sports science, served the Bafana of 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.
https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-time ... geria-zim/
With Sundowns' manic programme, coach Hugo Broos will hope he has a national team that is not on the verge of collapse next month.
SOLDIERING ON The Mamelodi Sundowns pair of Khuliso Mudau and Themba Zwane, pictured in the group stage match against Namibia in Korhogo, were two of the stars of Bafana Bafana's bronze medal campaign at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in January and February.
National coach Hugo Broos will have a major concern on his mind about the potential fatigue of the core of his team that comes from Mamelodi Sundowns when Bafana Bafana play two huge 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe next month.
With Group C favourites and Bafana’s perennial stumbling block Nigeria having started poorly with draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, South Africa are in with a real chance of qualifying for a first World Cup other than as hosts since 2002.
Bafana (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, South Africa can put themselves in the group 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 — seven or even eight in his starting XI. Apart from Downs possessing most of the best players in the DStv Premiership, in which they have wrapped up a seventh successive title in 2023-24, 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, the Belgian will have some concerns about the number of games Sundowns have played — 53 at present and 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 also complete that manic schedule clashing against Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup final at Mbombela Stadium on June 1, six days before Bafana meet Nigeria away.
Nigeria v South Africa, AFCON 2023 | highlights.
Sundowns’ players are hardened, one saw that at the Nations Cup. But that many matches in a campaign — add Bafana matches, and not just the seven played at high intensity at Afcon, but also throughout the season — and the travel involved, and Broos will hope he has a national team that is not on the verge of collapse next month.
Joshua Smith, now high-performance manager at AmaZulu, where he oversees the under-13s to the Premiership team in all things strength and conditioning and sports science, served the Bafana of 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.
https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-time ... geria-zim/
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Re: Fatigue a concern for Bafana in huge World Cup clashes against Nigeria, Zim
Nice attempt at a trick by South Africa. E no go work 
Wha choo looking at?!
Re: Fatigue a concern for Bafana in huge World Cup clashes against Nigeria, Zim
The truth is that the South Africans are toughened by varied competition in the continent as the SE found out at the last AFCON. Aa the piece notes, majority of the players play for Mamelodi Sundowns, a top level African club for years. They are a mean unit with pacy players and a dangerous setpiece specialist. Nevertheless, SE has home advantage and one hopes a huge crowd is at hand to provide a psychological edge.
The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics