Katlego Mphela urges Pitso Mosimane to start Yanela Mbuthuma for Bafana Bafana

Former Bafana Bafana striker Katlego “Killer” Mphela has called on coach Pitso Mosimane to hand Orlando Pirates forward Yanela Mbuthuma a starting role against Eritrea in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

South Africa meet the Red Sea Camels at Cairo’s Al-Salam Stadium on tonight at 6pm SA time, with both teams playing their second Group D match in the qualification campaign for next year’s tournament, which will be co-hosted by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

Bafana arrive with confidence after beating Guinea 2-1 in their opening fixture at Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday. However, their forwards have now gone five matches without scoring for the national team.

South Africa’s two goals against Guinea came from centre-back Ime Okon and left-back Samukelo Kabini. Mamelodi Sundowns striker Iqraam Rayners led the attack before being replaced by Mbuthuma in the 68th minute.

Mphela believes the young Orlando Pirates forward should be given the opportunity to lead the line against Eritrea, who are ranked 184th in the world by Fifa. South Africa are ranked 50th.

“I’d say give Mbuthuma a chance. Rayners did fairly well against Guinea but he never really got chances, so I’d go for Mbuthuma just to see what he can do. Coach Pitso seems to believe in him and that might have boosted his confidence as well, so I think he deserves to start,” Mphela told Sowetan yesterday.

“Rayners has also proven that he’s effectieve coming off the bench, so starting him off the bench wouldn’t be a bad idea as well.”

Bafana’s most recent goal from a striker came in a 1-1 draw against Jamaica. Lyle Foster scored in that pre-World Cup friendly, which was played behind closed doors in Mexico in early June, but he is not part of the current squad.

Mphela was Mosimane’s preferred striker during the manager’s first spell in charge of Bafana Bafana, which ran from July 2010 to June 2012. He expects South Africa’s quality to be enough to secure victory in Cairo, but warned the team must avoid underestimating their opponents.

“We will have to beat them, that’s the expectations given the quality we have. We should take these three points, but history tells me that this kind of games can be tricky,” Killer said.

“Players can easily get complacent in such games and be surprised. It happened before where we got humbled by minnows like Cape Verde and Niger, among others. In terms of quality, I don’t think they can trouble us…but we have to be mentally strong.”