Bafana coach Hugo Broos admits he was impressed by the quality of his new-look squad in recent friendly international matches with Tanzania and Mozambique.
After being held to a goalless draw with the Taifa Stars on Friday, Broos’ side then beat the Mambas 2-0 with goals from Sinoxolo Kwayiba and Ashley Cupido.
The Bafana boss explained he was unsure as to how his young team would perform, but now says he expects to be faced with a selection dilemma when selecting his next squad.
South Africa are next in action in World Cup qualifiers with Lesotho and Nigeria in September.
Broos said in iDiski Times: “Everything is positive and this is something that’ll make my job difficult in the next months, when you see that we had 23 players here and there are still maybe another 23, who weren’t here, so it means now I can choose from something like 40 players and that will be difficult because I’ll have to drop players in September … players who maybe deserve to be with the team.”
There were no Mamelodi Sundowns in the squad due to their involvement in the Club World Cup.
“We played good football. There was depth in the way we played, we kept the ball well, so I think it was a fantastic game for me with a group of players who hadn’t played together before we started the camp,” the coach added.
“We started this camp with a little bit of hesitation as the technical team because you can believe in a player and you can see that the player is performing well in his club, but this is another level and you still have to wait [to see if a player is ready for Bafana or not], but the boys were very good.
“Players will also be more motivated now because they know that there’s others behind them, waiting to take their places and that will increase the level of the national team.”