Matthew Booth wants SAFA to keep current Bafana Bafana squad

Matthew Booth has urged the SAFA and the technical team to keep the current group of Bafana Bafana players together for as long as possible.   The former defender, who also represented Bafana Bafana in his heyday, insists there are more positives than negatives that came out of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.   "Well look it was like a rollercoaster I think from a performance point of view," Booth tells snl24.com/kickoff.   "There are certain positives from the group games. I think the fact that Baxter changed his midfield on all three occasions but they still seemed to gel pretty well. I think up front we lacked a bit of energy, and then leading up to the Egypt game I suspected we were going to come to the party and surprise Egypt.   READ: SAFA happy with AFCON preps   "We have this funny ability to when we have our backs against the wall and nobody gives us a chance. When we play against the favourites we have this ability to come to the party. I think the Egypt game is one of the best games I have seen Bafana play in probably the last decade. I think it surpassed the performance away in Nigeria in the qualifiers. I think that would be the highlight of the tournament for me.    "It was always going to be difficult to get that same energy against Nigeria, to try and pick the team up again. But having said that I think we did well to equalise and get back into the game and of course in tournaments of this magnitude and stage, sometimes small mistakes or in this case a big mistake determines the game.    "And again there's a lesson to be learned that you can't really take your foot off the accelerator or lose concentration for one second, otherwise you will get punished, especially in the knockout rounds.    "Against Nigeria we didn't have the same energy that we had against Egypt. You know we've set a standard for ourselves now against Egypt, we know what we are capable of."   The former Mamelodi Sundowns star came to the defence of overseas-based strikers Lars Veldwijk and Lebo Mothiba, who both failed score in the tournament, and says the pair will get it right once given a proper chance.   "Veldwijk didn't get enough game time I feel. He showed some nice touches with Percy Tau, combination play with Tau against Namibia. But I felt you can't really have an opinion on the guy when he comes on in the last ten to fifteen minutes. We are looking for an equaliser against Nigeria, and all the balls are being played high to him you know," Booth explains.   "You can't judge a guy from that small amount of play from the game scenario. It was a false situation. I would like to see him play a full game and then decide on him.    "For Mothiba he had an outstanding game against Egypt, he held the ball up nicely. I don't think we had enough of the ball to get it in to him against Nigeria. In the group games I felt that he didn't have enough support from the wide players. Our attacking players lacked a bit of energy apart from the second half of the Namibia game. South Africans, we don't have a lot of patience for tall number nines, he's actually got good feet and he's a good passer of the ball."   Booth is hoping the team will stay together for a long time and build from the progress they made in Egypt.   "Ja look as footballers we love consistency you know, in a build-up to a game we like to do the same things to prepare our minds for the game. If things change it is disturbing for players. Likewise if you keep changing the squad basically you will have to start all over again.   "So my advice is to keep this team going for as long as possible. Obviously there would be minor changes perhaps, over the next couple of years. But certainly from a squad point of view and the team I would keep it."