Bafana Bafana head coach Pitso Mosimane has offered his assessment of attacker Puso Dithejane who plies his trade in USA’s Major League Soccer.
The travel between the United States of America and the African continent is between 20 to 30 hours depending on which flight you take. This has been a concern for the previous Bafana Bafana coach as he felt like the players from MLS don’t have enough time to train with the team which requires them to miss the first game in the international break and play the second one.
Mosimane also agreed that it is an issue but also stated that there’s nothing to be done instead players are professionals they should be able to handle this. With only two to three days to prepare for the match, Mosimane mentioned that Puso Dithejane has been in South Africa for most of his years so it shouldn’t be difficult for him to settle.
“I guess any team that has a player from MLS on the continent is facing the same challenge. These are professional footballers; you have to manage their travel, make sure they travel well with no issues, and give them time to rest. But there is not enough time to rest with international games all you have is three and a half days.” Mosimane told the media.
“Yes, we arrived on Friday but the players arrived on Monday so tell me about the last two days what was happening between Friday and Monday; it’s part of the game, it’s part of football international football is like that so if you find three full days to train you you’ve done well.
“Puso is good and also, he is young, the younger you are the quicker you recover; that’s a fact he is good, he is running, he is all over the place. He is trying to show that he can do something, but we should also manage our expectations of him.
“He understands that he has to earn the space and he has to show. It’s not calling players because they are young and trying to show that you’re calling young players so they have a chance to play and they have to show that they deserve to be in the team and if they have age on their side, it’s an advantage but Puso is 21.
“He’s got more than 13 years here so he’s got enough time to gel in we just recognized him, acknowledged him and that’s more important.”