4. Six World Cup-bound players absent, but several youngsters involved instead

Alongside David Raum, who has been called up by Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann, Christoph Baumgartner, Nicolas Seiwald and Xaver Schlager are also starting their World Cup preparations. Yan Diomande and Antonio Nusa are also getting ready for the tournament with Côte d’Ivoire and Norway respectively.

Ole Werner will therefore out a slightly different looking XI in Pretoria. That will give several RBL youngsters a welcome chance to show what they can do with the first team: Samba Konaté, Abdul Al-Khalaf, Benno Kaltefleiter, Toni Langsteiner, Lionel Voufack and Warren Ngana from the U19s, as well as Manuel Abbey from the U17s, will all be part of the group. Samba and Benno are already members of the first-team squad.

The Red Bulls’ friendly against Mamelodi Sundowns will be shown live on Red Bull TV from 20:00 CEST on Friday.