Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has confirmed that Iqraam Rayners is in contention to start the game against Algeria but has warned the forward about adapting to the higher level of international football.
Rayners came on as a substitute in the second-half as South Africa drew 1-1 in the first FIFA Series friendly tie against Andorra on Thursday.
Despite dominating the match for longer periods, Bafana failed to win and were guilty of missing opportunities.
Khanyisa Mayo started as the main striker but was unable to register a goal despite a getting into good positions in the game.
“This is a problem already for several years in South African football, so we don’t really have the big scorer, even when there are guys who score rather easily in the local competition.
“You see Mayo eight goals, Rayners also [scoring] but we’ll see, Iqraam on Tuesday will play but everyone has to know those games, international games are one or two levels higher than PSL, it’s not easy to score but on the other end.
“We have to see for the moment there are three strikers who aren’t here, Makgopa, Mothiba and Foster – so there are some things to wait for. I hope all three of them… maybe not Mothiba but Makgopa and Foster will be ready in June.
“Those games are important, we proved at AFCON we can score, but last Thursday we had many chances and we didn’t score enough,” Broos said to SAFA Media ahead of the Algeria game.
Broos opted for an inexperienced starting XI in the Andorra game, with four players handed full senior debuts in Annaba.
The outspoken coach has vowed to ring the changes for the Algeria clash.
“There will be a lot of changes. We looked a bit at both games and the best opportunity to give the young guys to play was last Thursday.
“If you compare Algeria and Andorra there is a lot of difference in quality so we need to put out our best team on Tuesday, we can’t afford experiments. Also players who didn’t play (against Andorra) will be fresh,” Broos added.
The match between Algeria and South Africa is scheduled for the Nelson Mandela Stadium on Tuesday (23:00).
