Ntseki impressed with South Africa’s progress ahead of CHAN opener

South Africa coach Molefi Ntseki has admitted to being impressed with his squad with only two days remaining before the African Nations Championship (CHAN) kicks off in the East of Africa.

Nteski’s squad, who have been in camp in Johannesburg since last week, played a training match against Angola which ended in a 1-1 draw, behind closed doors at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Tuesday as part of their preparations.

“It has always been a challenge to select (CHAN squads) and this has been the case from our first (qualifier) against Egypt (in March) and then the game against Malawi (in May), but I think the players that were made available for selection are quality, and players that are very proud to be selected and to be part of this team,” Nteski told SAFA media.

“You can tell from the attitude and the work rate of the players that we have had since we started with the qualifiers and the game we played today. We have got 15 players (in the team) that are unattached, but it is not because of a lack of quality from their side.

“There are many other reasons why these players are not attached, and these are good quality players. They’ve been in the league for more than five and ten seasons, so you can’t go wrong if you ever have these types of players that are part of the team going into CHAN. So, I am very, very impressed and very happy to have this group.”

Bafana Bafana have been drawn in Group C alongside Algeria, Guinea, Niger and hosts Uganda. They will kick off their campaign against Algeria on August 7.