Nthethe: We played positively

The fact that the match was degraded from an international friendly to a practice match after South Africa fielded a third string team could not take away Nthethe's moment in the spotlight.   The 27-year-old defender – who is also the Bloemfontein Celtic captain – played the entire 90 minutes against a full strength Ghana, leading the underdogs to a well deserved 1-1 draw when very few people gave the team any chances of surviving.

_quote   Ghana's coach Goran Stevanovic – who is under immense pressure to win this year's edition of the Africa Cup of Nations – praised South Africa for managing to keep their tactical structure during the match in the face of several attacks by the Black Stars.   "Even in the training sessions that we had, you could see that we were playing positively," Nthethe says.   "We told ourselves that we have nothing to lose against Ghana.   "We wanted to win because we all want to stay in the Bafana team even when the regular members are available.   "We did well and the experience is going to benefit all of us because we will improve," he adds.