Baxter praises Pirates winger

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Bafana Bafana winger Riyaad Norodien

Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter reiterated his disappointment at his sides COSAFA Cup exit, but said he was pleased by the performance of Orlando Pirates man Riyaad Norodien.

The host nation missed out on the opporturtunity to retain their title as they succumbed to a 1-0 loss against Tanzania in the quarter-finals of the competition.

Despite the sides dismal showing in their opening game, Baxter singled out the performance of late inlusion, Norodien.

‘Results are very important, you never give away a result, you always want to win,’ he told safa.net.

‘I am really disappointed in the result, but more disappointed that no one really raised their hand. I think the only player to do so was Riyaad Norodien, I think he did well.

‘Every defeat is a setback, this is a disappointing result, but if you see the bigger picture you have to look at it and say is this a devastating blow or disappointing evening, I would say it was a disappointing evening because you always play to win,’ he added.

Baxter hinted at wholesale changes for his sides plate-play-off encounter against Botswana at the Moruleng Stadium on Tuesday at 17h00.

‘Since we can’t win the tournament we will have to go all out for development.

‘With due respect to the organisers, there’s nothing to be won.

‘The biggest thing we can take from the remaining games, is that we give a couple of youngsters a chance, so we will rotate the squad fiercely.

‘Again, looking at games like these, you have to keep a little bit of discipline and composure, and not in your disappointment rush out and say let’s bring back [Siphiwe Tshabalala] Shabba, push in [ Reneilwe Letsholoyane] Yeye, or get those players that are in South Africa but will not give us anything in the long term.

‘So you have to keep your composure, you have to make sure that you don’t think that you have lost – you have to see it as having won or learnt, hopefully we will learn something from this loss.

‘It’s very disappointing, and there’s no one more disappointed than me, but it’s up to everybody to get some perspective on this – we have to look at it and ask ourselves, ‘which of the youngsters could handle it? And that has to be the same with the upcoming CHAN qualifiers,’ he concluded.

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