Scouting behind amateur inclusions in COSAFA Cup squad - Walter Steenbok

Faced with player availability challenges from the Premier Soccer League’s (PSL) premier division, Steenbok has revealed that a national ‘B’ team will mainly be made up of players from the national first division and the third tier. 

He explains that SAFA scouts David Nyathi, Aaron Mokoena, and Sinesipho Mali did the necessary groundwork to select players from the recently concluded play-offs in Pietermaritzburg.

"The idea was to work together with head scout David Nyathi, assistant Aaron Mokoena, and technical scout Sinesipho Mali and try to profile players in the ABC Motsepe League, especially the top nine teams from each province," Steenbok explained.

"With the sole aim of trying to get some of those players into the COSAFA team, and also have a future perspective on the CHAN tournament as qualifiers approach.

"Because we really need to give them an opportunity in the CHAN, but also to increase the pool of exceptional players coming from the regions and provinces."

Bafana have been drawn alongside Namibia, Botswana, and Eswatini in Group A of the tournament, and the team will open up against Namibia at King Zwelithini Stadium on 5 July, and Steenbok says quality scouting was key in getting this team together.

"We've had a very strong presence in terms of scouting through what Sinesipho has been doing in the NFD, so we've got a tremendous pool of NFD players, but again, we also had to wait for the results of the play-offs," he added.

"Majority of those players from Maritzburg United and Cape Town Spurs were already in the national under-23 setup, so a clear picture will of the players on the verge of Bafana Bafana, under-23 and players coming from the lower leagues.

"So, it will be a mixture of all of that, and those three components will be important, especially the under-23 player who couldn't qualify for the U23 AFCON and Olympics."