South Africa's home-based players give coach headache

South Africa's home-based squad players have made such a dramatic improvement that the host country's European contingent face a struggle to secure their usual starting places for the World Cup finals.                                           

"It's a good problem for a coach to (have) but it is giving me a headache," coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said as he mulled who to select before trimming his squad to 23.                                           
 

"I have to make some tough decisions," he added.             

His dilemma is whether to stick by the home-based players he has worked with continuously since March or make room in an improving team for more experienced, overseas-based players.

South Africa finished their league season early in February to allow Parreira to take the best domestic-based players for intensive training camps in Brazil and Germany.                     
 

This group now seems to have an edge over many of the European-based players, who have only joined the World Cup preparations in the last fortnight.                                           
 

"The competition is very tough between the overseas and home based players," the coach added.                                           
 

Parreira, who plans to name his final squad on May 31 as they prepare for group matches with Mexico, Uruguay and France, started with the South Africa-based players against Bulgaria in a warm-up match at Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Monday.   

After a 1-1 draw in which Siyabonga Sangweni opened the scoring before Valeri Bojinov equalised, Parreira again expressed his delight at the progress of his team.