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FRUSTRATED: Bafana Bafana defender Morgan Gould and Salahdin Ahmed of Ethiopia during the home 2014 World Cup qualifier on June 3. PHOTO: GALLO IMAGES

 It is going to be an uphill battle, one of those games where we are going to have to fight to get on top of the hill 

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The South Africans need a win to avert equalling their longest winless streak of nine matches. But in the west African Panthers they will find a team confident from their impressive run to the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations finals as co-hosts in January and February and who are ranked almost 20 places above the South Africans (68th).

Gabon are ranked ninth in Africa and come into the game on the back of a good start to their World Cup qualifying campaign, with a 1-0 home win against Burkina Faso and goalless away draw against Niger over the past two weekends.

In contrast Bafana began their campaign with disappointing 1-1 draws at home to 130th-ranked Ethiopia and away against 116th-placed Botswana.

Like most west African national teams, the Gabonese squad comprises players who are almost all based in Europe, even if it's not always in the top leagues. These include three stars of the 2012 Afcon co-hosts, who won all three of their group matches (2-0 against Niger, 3-2 against Morocco and 1-0 against Tunisia) before losing 5-4 on penalties in the quarterfinals against Mali.

France-based forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was among the top scorers of the Afcon with three goals. Spain-based Levy Madinda, who plays for Celta Vigo B, featured strongly in all the Gabon games. Bruno Zita Mbangoye, of Belarussian club Dinamo Minsk, scored the spectacular free-kick with the last kick of the game in the victory that knocked Morocco out of the tournament and saw the Panthers through to the quarters.

"It is going to be an uphill battle, one of those games where we are going to have to fight to get on top of the hill," said Bafana Bafana central defender Morgan Gould, who scored his first international goal against Botswana.

The former SuperSport United player, who signed for Kaizer Chiefs just before South Africa's poor start to the qualifiers for Brazil 2014, said Bafana's run of seven draws and a defeat has been frustrating for the players.

He said poor finishing was the main reason for South Africa's inability to win matches, which cost coach Pitso Mosimane his job.

"We try very hard to win matches, and we are not happy the results are not coming," he said.

l Tomorrow's match kicks off at 8.30pm.

Comments

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Sat May 18 19:18:22 SAST 2013 ::

Jun 14, 2012

lebadi

id rather watch paint dry on the wall.
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Jun 14, 2012

BRA-MAFUTHA

Easy win for Gabon.
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Jun 14, 2012

guiliano

Dancing Bafana will play for a draw.
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Jun 14, 2012

Stumaeza

seven draws and 2 loses...getting worse!
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Jun 14, 2012

DeOvi

guiliano
Dancing Bafana will play for a draw.
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i dont think it will be a draw......a simple loss will do
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Jun 14, 2012

T'dpole

i am not being unpatriotic but bufana will loose or at least draw.the players don't deserve to play for the national team peiod. you must just see, they will play the first 15 mins in their own half as if they are playing away, how do u expect them to win.

the coach must just play Jali for goodness sake and put Khuboni on the bench, we don;'t see what he is doing and Tshabalala must also follow him on the bench
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Jun 14, 2012

NnyoyakaEmonate_-

@DeOvi

Wena sefeb3 what do you know about soccer - F0000tsek and go wash your Nny0....(jou Moer)
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Jun 14, 2012

WarrenG

Should be easy for Gabon. We lucky we not playing away or we'd be fukked
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Jun 14, 2012

Nkasegobotsesephirise

So all of you are hopeless-mxm!
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Jun 14, 2012

Sdlala2010

I better watch Mario Balotelli of France in the euro 2012 match than these clowns, mxm.
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