South Africa: Fransman Out of Cosafa Cup Semi-Final

Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund has had to deal with the withdrawal of yet another player ahead of South Africa's Cosafa Cup semi-final against Zambia on Wednesday, with SuperSport United defender Bevan Fransman pulling out citing personal reasons.

Fransman was initially left out of the travelling party to play for his club in a pre-season friendly match against Manchester City on the weekend, which SuperSport won 2-0. He was expected to fly to Zambia on Monday.

Igesund is left to make do with the squad of 19 players already in Zambia.

'Formidable'

Looking ahead to the clash with the hosts, Igesund said: "This is the final before the final. Zambia is a very formidable side and could be dangerous at times. They have the crowd behind them which should make for a highly contested match.

"We have worked hard in preparation for this match, so we will play as a team this time around," Igesund said. "I haven't finalised my starting eleven as yet for Wednesday, but I think I will have about eight players who are under 23 years of age and this should be an interesting game.

"This is an exciting team and I believe they will hold their own against the home side."

Igesund's words were echoed by his captain Wayne Sandilands, who said: "It is going to be another tough match, more so as we are facing the home side.

'Give it our all'

"From what we have seen here in their last match, Zambia has very good players and will be boosted by their fans, which will make things tough for us," Sandilands said. "But we also have a very good team ourselves and we are definitely going to give it our all.

"From what I saw on Saturday, we have a very good bunch of committed players, who showed a lot of passion and wanted a win at all costs.

"We also appreciate the support that we have been getting from back home and, like I said before we left, we will do our best to make our country proud."

Quarterfinals

Bafana Bafana qualified for the last four after defeating Namibia 2-1 in the quarterfinals on Saturday at the Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka. Zambia were 3-1 winners over Mozambique.

"The boys played very well under the circumstances," Sandilands reckoned. "We knew that it was going to be tough and that is exactly what we came up against.

"Namibia really gave us a run for our money, but the win has injected an extra amount of boost in the confidence and the morale is higher than ever.

'Belief'

"Gratitude must go to the coach and the technical team as well as the support staff for making our job easier," Sandilands said. "Now we are looking forward to the clash against Chipolopolo with greater motivation and belief in ourselves."

Both Lerato Chabangu and Edward Manqele did not train on Monday because of ankle injuries. Their fitness is being monitored by the medical team.

In the other semi-final, Lesotho, shock winners over Botswana on penalties in the quarterfinals, take on Zimbabwe, who also won from the penalty spot in their last eight showdown with Malawi.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201307160354.html

Amanda Berry