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Gettyimages 2224029088 612x612 1 — Mduduzi Shabalala

‘I’m here to help Bafana qualify for World Cup’

Kaizer Chiefs forward Mduduzi Shabalala is determined to help Bafana Bafana qualify for the World Cup as he’s part of the squad for two crucial qualifiers against Lesotho and Nigeria, both at Free State Stadium on Friday and Tuesday, respectively.

“This [being in the Bafana squad for two crucial World Cup qualifiers] is a big opportunity for me in my career. It’s everyone’s dream to play for their country, so I am here to help the team win the games to qualify for the World Cup,” Shabalala, who’d never made the senior national team squad before, said.

In June, the 21-year-old Shabalala was part of the Cosafa Cup in Bloemfontein, where SA lost the final 0-3 to Angola. The Chiefs man suggested that being part of the Cosafa Cup played a role in him finally making the senior Bafana squad. Both matches against Lesotho and Nigeria kick off at 6pm.

“It was a good opportunity and good platform to be part of the Cosafa Cup, to showcase and maybe prove to the coach that I also want to be in the first team of Bafana. Finally the coach saw me, here I am today and I am happy to have made the squad,” Shabalala said.

Heading into these two World Cup qualifiers, Bafana, who could still be docked three points for fielding suspended Teboho Mokoena against Lesotho in Polokwane in March, top Group C with 13 points, five above second-placed Rwanda, who are tied on points with Benin in third spot, but boast a better goal difference.

Bafana coach Hugo Broos emphasised that he wasn’t going to start thinking about the Nigeria game until they dealt with the job at hand, that’s the game against Lesotho.

“First of all let’s start with Lesotho. I don’t want to think about Nigeria for the moment. I have seen their games in the past and that’s enough for me for now. We will start focusing on them after the game with Lesotho. At this moment the most important thing is the game against Lesotho. We must get a victory against Lesotho because if we fail to do that, we will have more troubles in the future, ” Broos said.