Posted in News on Oct 24, 2007.
Tsotetsi has targeted Sunday’s game against SuperSport United as the starting point for him to finding his way back to into the Bafana Bafana fold, he could not be more motivated for a match than he is for the meeting with United at the weekend.
Tsotetsi has featured in every game for Chiefs this season and has formed a pillar of strength at the centre of defence for The Amakhosi, and has looked comfortable playing alongside Jonathan Quartey, Cyril Nzama or most recently Fabian McCarthy in this area of the field.
The fact that Carlos Alberto Parreira roped him into one of his training camps as well as for the COSAFA Cup semifinal and final squads, has helped spur on the Chiefs defender, and if he continues to perform well at club level he will naturally become a Bafana Bafana regular.
Fate not conspiring
Tsotetsi who was told earlier in the week that due to a number of injuries at the back for Chiefs, he would not be released for Wednesdays COSAFA Cup Final against the Zambians. He told kaizerchiefs.com that at first it was hard for him to come to terms with the fact that he was going to miss out on his second call up in just over a month,
this after he was withdrawn from the COSAFA Cup semifinal against Botswana a few weeks ago as that game clashed with Chiefs' opening Telkom Cup game against Moroka Swallows.
Tsotetsi though believes that there is not a higher conspiracy keeping him out of the national team as he added, “I look at it in this light and that is that it was not meant for Moketi Tsotetsi to play against Botswana and Zambia. Football is such a game that you have to be ready for all eventualities, I must just get over this and carry on working hard. I must have done something right in the first place to have received those call ups and I need to continue playing the way I have and I am sure I will get another opportunity to play for the national team."
Star spangled ideas
With Bafana Bafana in action against North American neighbours the United States and Canada in November, Moketi will be looking to use Chiefs' matches against SuperSport, Free State Stars, Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns in the lead up to those games to fight his case for another shot at a national team call up.
Moketi went on to say “Right now I have the SuperSport game on my radar and the idea is to get Chiefs into the next round. Playing well against SuperSport and in those three league games before the USA and Canada games will only help my cause. I cannot shy away from the fact that I would give anything to play for my country, getting in the right kind of effort for my club will get me to play in the Nelson Mandela Inauguration game against the Americans at Ellis Park.”
No Sunday Stroll
While Moketi’s over all ambition remains to win a place in the national team in the immediate future, his idea is to leap frog SuperSport United and get Chiefs into Monday's draw for the Telkom Cup semifinal.
As he explains getting past SuperSport will not be a walk in the park, “This game against SuperSport requires us to be ready for a very challenging and demanding afternoon on Sunday. The game could well be just as tight an affair as the Swallows game was.”
“They are just as hungry as we are to turn their fortunes around and when you have to teams who have quality squads like us and them, it will be just a matter of time before things click and fall into place for either team. From our side we have rallied around each other and we have had a number of discussions at length about the way things have been going in recent games. The only thing that can be done is for us to get out on the field and win the game for the coach and the fans.”
