Baxter reckons youngsters need to be played in tough games

Stuart Baxter, the man in the charge of the South African national Football team, was pleased with the fact that his players never gave up against Paraguay and kept looking for that equalizer till the very end and eventually managed to find it in the last second of the game.

South Africa seemed to be losing that game against Paraguay at one stage as they were 0-1 down with only seconds left in the game, but just when the final whistle was about to be blown, Percy Tau came up with a fantastic late strike to get the scores leveled and prevent the loss.

According to Baxter, it was not an easy game. Paraguay played with almost their full strength side and because of the fact that they have a new manager taking charge, all of their players were looking to leave their mark on the manager and were looking to show him how good they are. So they were a bit more intense and attacking than they usually are. In general, you don’t expect a very aggressive approach from the teams of South America, but in this particular game, Paraguay was fairly aggressive.

Baxter also talked about his team selections and admitted that the question marks would be raised over his selections if it had resulted in a loss because he had put a bunch of youngsters in there who felt the heat against a comparatively more experienced side, but Baxter is of the view that for the youngsters to learn, it’s very important that they are played in such kind of games where they face tough challenges.

“I picked a lot of the young boys and if we had lost, I am sure you guys would have been at my throat, but the truth is they need to play against teams like this to learn.” Baxter was quoted saying by ESPN.