Former Mamelodi Sundowns attacker Brent Carelse insists South Africa Under-23 head coach David Notoane should take all the blame for his side's failure to beat Congo on Thursday.
South Africa equalised in the second half to salvage a 1-1 draw against the visitors ahead of a difficult second-leg fixture in a two-legged Afcon qualifier in Congo-Brazzaville.
READ | SA U23 battle back against Congo
Carelse says the national team now have a mountain to climb to ensure qualification for the continental tournament in June.
"We are doomed, these boys are not young players anymore they are adults," Carelse tells KickOff.
"Once you turn 18, 19 you are an adult. They get paid by professional clubs, and time for excuses is long done.
"When last did our national teams perform? Even Bafana Bafana haven't done anything in the past 15 years. Only the women have been doing well.
"The results should have been 1-0 or 2-0 to South Africa. It's our home game, we should qualify, but in South Africa, we are very good with excuses."
Carelse says he was left baffled by Notoane's strange selections with the under-23 side producing an unconvincing display.
"The coach has to be blamed because he is the one who is picking the team.
"Let's hold on a bit with these boys who are based overseas.
"We must stop this thing of checking these boys on the internet, someone must go there and watch these boys play.
"We don't know these overseas-based boys we have never seen them play. Let's rather play the ones we have seen play.
"It's embarrassing, even in 2010 it was the same story. Lendaba yokuthi kumele ube ku national team just because udlala overseas ayikho.
"What happened is these boys don't know each other, but the local ones know each other, for them it's easier to gel hence Shabalala spotted Maseko easily.
"Our country is different we cannot compare ourselves to Morocco and the other countries, we are different we have 11 different languages, and we have how many different cultures?
"We must give our local-based players the opportunity. If you come from abroad, you need to be better than the locally based players.
"You can't come here from Europe or wherever and look like an average player who never played football."
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