South Africa v Ivory Coast: Squad players get platform to impress

Fringe players get their chance to impress as South Africa take on the Ivory Coast in the 20th edition of the Nelson Mandela Challenge.

Since this year’s Nelson Mandela Challenge match falls outside of the international dates set by FIFA, both squads feature a number of players on the periphery hoping to make an impact on their coaches and earn a place at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. 

This annual match, first played in 1994, honours the memory of South Africa’s late former president and helps to raise funds and awareness for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. 

The Ivory Coast feature for a second time, having drawn 1-1 with Sunday’s opponents in the 2011 edition. South Africa will be hoping to claim their first Nelson Mandela Challenge win since 2009 in what will be coach Shakes Mashaba’s first match since guiding his team to next year’s AFCON finals with an undefeated record and knocking out continental powerhouses Nigeria along the way. 

And Mashaba is looking to maintain that momentum in the clash against the Ivory Coast. 

“Maintaining the momentum is key, because to break it could be detrimental to the team in the sense that we are looking forward to the AFCON tournament and we have to go there with the high spirit that already exists in the team,” he said during his team announcement. 

“With that in mind, we will go out there and do our best and hopefully continue with our record of not losing. 

“We will try to score goals and keep a clean sheet for the morale booster of the team heading to Equatorial Guinea.”

Herve Renard, the Ivory Coast coach, has announced a 20-man squad, but due to the match falling outside of the FIFA window he had to leave out the likes of Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure, Salomon Kalou, Gervinho, Wilfried Bony, Cheick Tiote and several other European-based stars.