Eight of the Pirates stars received national team call-ups during the recent international break: Sipho Chaine, Mbekezeli Mbokazi, Kamogelo Sebelebele, Sipho Mbule, Thalente Mbatha, Oswin Appollis and Relebohile Mofokeng were in the Bafana Bafana squad that faced Lesotho and Nigeria, while Deon Hotto was part of the Namibian team that participated in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
The Stellies coach praised the impressive depth of the Buccaneers, singling out talents like Evidence Makgopa, who has been a regular at Bafana. Nkosinathi Sibisi, Patrick Maswanganyi, Tshepang Moremi, and Deano van Rooyen made the preliminary squad but narrowly missed the final selection for various reasons, including injuries.
“I would rather face if there were no players in the national team. No. obviously, it shows testimony to what a good team that they’ve built, to have seven players in the national team and maybe one or two players that are injured that could have been in the national team,” said Barker during the pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
“Evidence [Makgopa], who’s been in the national team for a while now, who’s not there now. So, if you look at the whole squad with [Deon] Hotto, who’s a season Namibian international, basically. I believe Sihle Nduli is of the level that could play at the national level.
The 57-year-old feels that having only one player on the Bafana camp gives them a slight advantage, having managed to prepare for the final with a majority of his players.
“They got a team of national team players, which shows the quality, at the same time, what’s in our favour and advantage is we’ve only got Thabo [Moloisane] currently there, which has allowed us this week to prepare with our full squad except one, whereas Pirates most likely only get their players really fresh and ready to prepare from tomorrow or Thursday onwards,” he added.
“But it doesn’t make it easier because it just shows the quality that they have in the team that they’re all playing at a national level. So, big clubs in the world have lots of players who are on national duty, and they seem to cope well enough just because of the talent and the quality of the players.
“They’ve got their system that they’ve been playing. And they’ve turned their season around. So, I think it doesn’t really give us a massive advantage, but it is also nice to be able to work a full week without any midweek games with our squad, besides also having the opportunity last week to prepare the team.
Barker stressed the importance of winning the #WafaWafa trophy, as it has been his dream since gaining promotion to the top flight.
“You can ask the club, you can ask the players, the day we got promoted to the PSL, I said to the players that the best trophy to win in a season is the MTN8, cuz you’ve earned it.
“It’s not easy to get into the top eight, especially when we started out in the PSL, and I’ve told them I’ve always had a dream and a vision personally to lift this trophy.
“So personally, my desire to lift this MTN8 is higher than any other uh trophy. I believe that lifting the MTN8 is just really special.
“I have a vision, I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it, I’ve wanted, and I’m sure the players are on the same mission as me, which is to go there and to just really go and play with our hearts and our sleeves, do things differently, be brave, and be courageous,” Barker concluded.
Stellies head to this match to avenge last season’s 3-1 loss in the final of this cup against the Sea Robbers, while Pirates are eyeing a history-making fourth title in succession.