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Cape Town - Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane believes the reason South Africa lack quality finishers is because of the style of football played in the townships.
The poor quality of finishing from strikers in the Absa Premiership and at national level is something that has plagued South African football for years.
"I am not sure as to what happened. Our football comes from the townships, it’s a fact," Mosimane was quoted as saying by Daily Sun.
"When you look at boys playing in the townships, what do those children play? (Ha ba kore).
"They do not score, there are no net or goal posts and when you score you give the ball and possession away.
"What we end up doing is that we play ‘1-Pal’ game and we just dribble each other.
"So, we do not have a culture - we need to have goalposts and a net, which township has goalposts and a net? Let’s be honest guys."
Mosimane said it was not just an issue at club level but has seeped its way into the national team’s structure as well.
"Who is our striker in Bafana, and we are going to AFCON? It’s Percy, Lebo and who else? And Percy is a winger and I played him as a No 9 because he’s brave and he runs. Maybe we could say Tokelo Rantie but he’s not there. We have to scratch and scratch,” he remarked.
"Go to Pirates and see who is their number nine. You find the likes of (Justin) Shonga - you go to Chiefs you get Leonardo Castro and Khama Billiat. You go to SuperSport United you will find Bradley Grobler. Where are the strikers?”
"It’s my analysis, I could be wrong, maybe somebody can tell us. Maybe guys at development level or people like Neil Tovey in his position as SAFA Technical Director can tell us where the problem lies or where we are going wrong,” a concerned Mosimane said.
Meanwhile, Bafana Bafana will kick-off their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations campaign on Monday against one of the continents football giants, Ivory Coast.
Kick-off is at 16:30.
