Johannesburg — FACED with the biggest match of his short international coaching career, national soccer team coach Joel Natalino Santana yesterday desperately tried to put on a brave face when he announced the squad to host nemesis Nigeria in a crucial 2010 African Nations Cup showdown next month.

Bafana Bafana have never beaten Nigeria's Super Eagles in a competitive match but Santana - who has coached over a dozen clubs but is only in his third month as a national soccer team coach - said he could not even contemplate the thought of losing.

"Who knows, perhaps now is the time to finally beat them," Santana said.

"Nobody is unbeatable, not even Nigeria. I cannot go to a match against a team we have never been able to beat thinking that we are going to lose. So losing is not something that is on my mind. That is something that you guys (the media) have to understand."

Qualification for the Angola tournament hangs by a thread and Bafana need to beat the Super Eagles in Port Elizabeth on September 6 to have any hope of qualifying for the continental showpiece in 2010.

And should Bafana defy the odds and beat Nigeria, they must then continue these unlikely winning ways against Equatorial Guinea just a month later, in a potentially tricky away match.

Bafana will rely on favours elsewhere and also hope that group rivals Equatorial Guinea beat the fast-improving Sierra Leone in an away match.

Yet before entertaining all these permutations, they first have to negotiate a way past the old enemy Nigeria.

A succession of national team coaches have failed to beat the star-studded west Africans in a competitive match since SA's readmission to the international arena in 1992, while boasting a better quality of players than Santana.

But the Brazilian said he had no reason to fear Nigeria.

"Nigeria are a good team with a lot of experienced players. They did well to reach the final (in the Beijing Olympic Games) and they are a national team that we respect. But we do not fear them."

As has become the norm now, there were surprises in Santana's squad after he announced the return of the long forgotten former captain Mbulelo "OJ" Mabizela and Russia-based Matthew Booth.

Mabizela has not featured for Bafana since the 2006 African Nations Cup in Egypt and he seemed to have scuttled his international career when he was banned by the South African Football Association disciplinary committee for six months for using a banned substance -- cannabis -- later that year. Also making a return to the team is prodigal son Booth who has not played for Bafana since 2006.

Santana said the two veteran players were already in former coach Carlos Alberto Parreira's plans and the Brazilian would have called them up at some stage. Bafana will depart for Port Elizabeth on Sunday and begin preparations the next day.

BAFANA SQUAD

Goalkeepers -- Itumeleng (Kaizer Chiefs), Moeneeb Josephs (Orlando Pirates)

Defenders -- Matthew Booth (Krylya Sovetov), Bradley Carnell ( Karlsruhe), Siboniso Gaxa, Mbulelo Mabizela (both Mamelodi Sundowns), Bongani Khumalo (SuperSport), Bevan Fransman (Maccabi Netanya), Innocent Mdledle (Pirates), Bryce Moon (Panathinaikos), Nasief Morris (Recreativo de Huelva)

Midfielders -- Lance Davids (Djurgardens), Kagiso Dikgacoi (Golden Arrows), Thulasizwe Mbuyane, Teko Modise, Lebogang Mothibantwa (all Pirates), Surprise Moriri (Sundowns) Siyabonga Nkosi (Arminia Bielefeld), Macbeth Sibaya (Rubin Kazan), Siphiwe Tshabalala (Chiefs), Lefa Tsutsulupa (Moroka Swallows).

Strikers -- Benni McCarthy (Blackburn), Sibusiso Zuma (Sundowns)