SOUTH African main newspapers have, in the past three weeks, shifted their attention to the AFCON finals which will be underway in Ghana tomorrow. While the newspapers have tried to give coverage to all teams participating in this massive tournament, Bafana Bafana have been given special treatment by the media here.
They have played two preparatory matches against light weights Mozambique and Botswana and have won both of them by 2-0 and 2-1 score lines respectively. These two friendlies have been highly publicised. It’s good to be patriotic.
Bafana Bafana will be taking on the Palancas Negras of Angola in the opening match of group D and judging by the mood in South Africa, Bafana Bafana need to at least get to the quarter final of this tournament. Coach Carlos Alberta Parreira is under pressure to win given the fact that South Africa will be hosting the world cup in 2010.
The fans are treating this tournament as a dress rehearsal for 2010, said one fan who spoke on conditions of anonymity, “we are not expecting anything less than a quarter final berth given the fact that the coach had enough time to prepare the team and had the luxury to drop national favourite, Benni McCarthy. We want the cup back home because this tournament should save as a dress rehearsal for 2010.”
Given this kind of pressure from passionate home fans, the Aaron Mokoena captained Bafana Bafana need to know that failure to put up a brave show in Ghana will be tantamount to playing around with people’s emotions. South Africa have been at the nations cup tournament ever since they were crowned the champions in 1996.
Their performance, though, has been so horrible in the previous two campaigns which saw them bowing out in the first round in 2004 and 2006. Currently, Bafana Bafana have a good team which is dominated by youngsters in Terror Fanteni, Excellent Walaza, Bryce Moon, Steven Pienaar and Teko Modise among others. Bafana Bafana have a good chance to progress to the next stage if they bit Angola on January 23 and Tunisia on January 27 before their difficult assignment against Senegal on January 31. They have good brains on the bench, brains which can outthink and outplay Tunisia and Angola. They can only lose to Senegal.
Tipped to progress to the next stage: South Africa and Senegal.
READER OPINIONS
SUBMITYOUROPINION
Please make sure you fill in all sections for your post to be submitted. Use n/a if not submitting details. The submission code below is case-sensitive. Also make sure you get confirmation that your comment has been submitted.
