Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund admits his side still have a long way to go before the can call themselves a proper footballing team.
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South Africa's preparations ahead of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations hit a set-back on Wednesday evening as they went down 1-0 to defending champions Zambia in the Nelson Mandela Challenge.
Igesund and Bafana have only had five months together since the coach was appointed Pitso Mosimane's successor, and the former Moroka Swallows boss admits that is a very short time in which to try and forge a title winning team.
"The difference between the two teams is that they (Zambia) are a team," Igesund said after the game.
"They have been together for maybe three years or so and we've been together for three months, five games and eight training sessions.
"We are 23 players that have been put together and we haven't done our set pieces, we haven't done our counter-attacking, we haven't done a lot of stuff.
"This will say it by itself - if you have five games and you have eight training sessions, one training session with the team before the game, what do you do?
"You can't train out there for six hours, but these aren't excuses."
Igesund, though, does not believe Bafana are too far off from becoming a proper footballing force, adding: "Personally, I don't think they were much better than us in certain departments.
"The game tonight was a little bit disappointing because I don't think we created enough opportunities.
"The combination plays weren't there in situations, the understanding between players wasn't great.
"We missed a little bit of creativity in the middle of the park and we didn't really create enough chances, although we did have a couple."
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