Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane could only be pleased with a win after he fielded a number of his fringe players in a 30-player squad against a near full-strength Egypt in Sunday's soccer friendly at Cairo International Stadium.
The emerging stars in an expanded squad Mosimane called up to have a look at his frontline candidates in this Fifa international window took their chance to impress, with Puso Dithejane's 51st-minute strike separating the teams in an impressive 1-0 result.
Mosimane's second tenure is off to a bright start.
Battling a few injuries, he kept the core of the team that went out in the last 32 of the World Cup under Hugo Broos in a 2-1 win against a tough Guinea and a 5-0 thrashing of Eritrea that sees Bafana top of group D after their first two outings in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
In the friendly against Egypt, the coach had latitude to experiment and bravely made wholesale changes, with Sipho Chaine coming into goal, Thabang Mataludi, Lebone Seema and Fawaaz Basadien into the defence, Brooklyn Poggenpoel in midfield and Dithejane, Luther Singh, Shandre Campbell and Cassius Mailula into the attack.
The youngsters repaid the coach's faith, chasing and closing Egypt down without the ball, and gaining in confidence and energy in attack to shock the Pharaohs.
"I was a bit sad to see in the first 25 minutes we could not find our feet," Mosimane said.
"It's normal, because we bled the younger ones. It takes a bit of time to gel, too, and they have to gain confidence.
"But what I like is they are not afraid. And I let them swim with the sharks, threw them in the deep end. And yeah, they swam, hey.
"It's good to see Shandre, Puso, all the young ones; Seema, a big game. They played.
"And also it's good to bring back Basadien because he was in the national team before.
"We were a little bit thin in the midfield — I had to play [defender Olwethu] Makhanya in the midfield at the end.
"But it's part of the game — we had to do what we had to do. We were under a lot of pressure.
"We prepared a lot. [Omar] Marmoush was a bit of a problem because he's playing in the Premier League; he's fast. But Lebone is quick.
"So that's good. At least we didn't change a lot at centre-back; I kept Ime [Okon]."
The result meant Bafana have beaten Egypt twice in succession, both wins coming at Cairo International, where Stuart Baxter's team shocked the hosts in the 2019 Afcon last 16.
