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as a very positive gesture for the team to register itsSENIOR NATIONAL TEAM3.4 International FriendliesExecutive SummaryIt has been the coach’s desire to play against the besthighly ranked teams in the world in order to boost the. Carlos Parreira with his countryman Mr. Jairo Leal players’ confidence. The first challenge was a 1 - 0 lossned SAFA at the beginning of January 2007 with the to Scotland in Aberdeen. Playing against the likes of Italyministrative assistance of Ms. Gugu Marawa.in October 2007 in Sienna (at the time ranked 1st in theWorld FIFA Rankings) and USA at home was indeed ae latter had temporarily seen through the threemajor challenge. A victory over Canada in Durbantches (Chad qualifier match away, Swaziland &boosted the moral within the team, culminating in threelivia friendly matches home) until end of May 2007. wins in other preparatory matches against Southern. Pitso Mosimane was appointed Senior National Region counterparts: Lesotho, Mozambique andam Coach Assistant from 1 May 2007, and towards Botswana.end of May 2007, Mr. Sipho Nkumane waspointed to a vacated position of Team Manager with 3.5 2008 AFCON – Ghanafirst assignment being the COSAFA Castle Cup GroupMatches held on 25 and 26 May 2008 at SomhloloIt was one of the toughest AFCON Competitions whereadium.we were pitted against Angola, Tunisia and Senegal. Ouryouthful team played competitively but unfortunatelyring the period under review the team played 2008 couldn’t pass through to the second stage of theana AFCON Qualifiers, International Friendlycompetition.tches, COSAFA Castle Cup matches, 2008 AFCONtches, 2010 FIFA World Cup/AFCON Qualifier3.6 2010 FIFA World Cup/AFCON Qualifier Matchestches and attended mini Camps to identify andsess technical ability skills of players.The process of building an internationally competitiveteam continued with two friendly matches againstCOSAFA Castle Cup MatchesZimbabwe.e team won the Group B stages and advanced to themifinals. It was never a smooth sailing path towardsfinals as the competition dates did not fall within theoclaimed FIFA dates which has been an uphill battle toercome with the League. The coach had to resort tolizing players that were made available for him to selectt nevertheless the team won the 2008 COSAFA Castlep Final beating Zambia.2008 AFCON QualifiersSpecial thanks to the League having heeded our call forthis match, we played against the 26th World FIFARanked South American team Paraguay, and BafanaBafana registered a convincing 3 - 0 victory. The excitingmood was dampened by the unfortunate departure ofCoach Carlos Parreira due to family reasons. Coach JoelNatalino Santana was brought in to continue the processof preparing a competitive team for the 2010 FIFA WorldCup.