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TIME RUNNING OUT: Bafana Bafana need more training time together

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Two months before the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund says the national football side cannot call themselves a team.

South Africa went down 1-0 to Afcon champions Zambia in the Nelson Mandela Challenge at FNB Stadium on Wednesday night after a second-half Collins Mbesuma strike ended Igesund’s 100 percent record against African opponents.

The coach, appointed in July, bemoaned Bafana’s lack of time together after they had gathered in Johannesburg on Sunday evening and had a single training session on Tuesday ahead of the Challenge fixture.

“The difference between the two teams is that they (Zambia) are a team,” Igesund said after the loss.

“They have been together for maybe three years or so and we’ve been together for three months, five games and eight training sessions.

“We are 23 players that have been put together and we haven’t done our set pieces, we haven’t done our counter-attacking, we haven’t done a lot of stuff.

“This will say it by itself — if you have five games and you have eight training sessions, one training session with the team before the game, what do you do? 

“You can’t train out there for six hours, but these aren’t excuses.” 

Igesund believed his side had not been outplayed by Chipolopolo, but he admitted that South Africa failed to create enough goal scoring opportunities and lacked solid combinations throughout the team.

“Personally, I don’t think they were much better than us in certain departments,” he said.

“The game tonight was a little bit disappointing because I don’t think we created enough opportunities.

“The combination plays weren’t there in situations, the understanding between players wasn’t great.

“We missed a little bit of creativity in the middle of the park and we didn’t really create enough chances, although we did have a couple.” 

The South Africans were kept under pressure by their visitors and lacked the final touches in the Zambian half, resulting in a disjointed attack when they were allowed forward movement.

“We didn’t get in behind them and we didn’t really create a lot of chances. We could have done a lot better in our offensive play,” Igesund said.

“It was unfortunate because we had two injuries to the two strikers (Bernard Parker and Tokelo Rantie).

“We’ve got the backbone of the team, I think, and there are certain areas in which we have to really improve.” 

A quiet first half was followed by a more lively second period, with the hosts looking more likely to score, before Orlando Pirates’ Mbesuma beat goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune in the 64th minute.

“At the end of the day, it was a very good exercise, a very good game against some very good opponents,” Igesund said.

“We wanted to win the game. We tried our hardest to do that, but I think Mbesuma scored a wonderful goal.

“We should have dealt with it a bit better before it got to him, but at the end of the day, that’s how it is and I just think we need to have more time on the training field.

“It was a tough, tough game and under the circumstances, it wasn’t bad.” 

While he was disappointed by Wednesday’s result, Igesund said the team was on track and would continue to prepare for next year’s Afcon tournament, which will be played in South Africa. “Obviously I’m disappointed because we wanted to win the game and get a bit of momentum going,” he said. “We were beaten [Wednesday] night and we would have liked to have won, but it’s part of the programme.

“It’s part of the process to get to where we want to be.”

Sapa

Comments

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Thu Jun 20 08:43:15 SAST 2013 ::

Nov 15, 2012

DJ-Winner

LOL...learning curve nonsense again. I thought Gordon was different. We can't experiment forever, Sir.

It is about time you produce results...
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Nov 15, 2012

Shredder

@DJ-Winner
LOL...learning curve nonsense again. I thought Gordon was different. We can't experiment forever, Sir.

It is about time you produce results...
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I agree, It has been a long time now. If I remember well, the US soccer league was revived just before or after the 1994 world cup, but they are now way ahead of us. It's time to produce results, no more excuses.
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Nov 15, 2012

ancnduntsu

Let's have Jomo for this AFCON cos in Gordon we won't reach the group stages. Everytime Gordon open his mouth he utters excuses.
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Nov 15, 2012

Papage

“They have been together for maybe three years or so and we’ve been together for three months, five games and eight training sessions.

“We are 23 players that have been put together and we haven’t done our set pieces, we haven’t done our counter-attacking, we haven’t done a lot of stuff.


We know all those excusses Gordon, make time then, have time with the players, stop going to England instead of training the boys, there is no more time to prepare, December is just hear and the players mind is already on holiday, you can't take that out of their minds, even if you try train them juring December, they will be tired because the body wants to rest and the mind is on holiday.
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Nov 15, 2012

Voetzek

By the way whats the meaning of friendly games, im so flubagusted by some of stupid comment
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Nov 15, 2012

ancnduntsu

The reason we lost last nyt its bcos of u Gordon. Your selection criteria is questionable as well as your approach to the game. When u signed the contract, u knew the amt of time u had with BB. So stop making yo lousy excuses.
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Nov 15, 2012

Tasto_

Yadah yadah yadah G.I won 5 leugue PSL titles, where is that choir now?Without being disrespectfull why Swallows players dominating the team now.All coaches with local connections are either incompetent or crooks first b4 being coaches, from RDS, Steve,Jomo,Pistol now G.I.


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Nov 15, 2012

Shredder

@ancnduntsu
Let's have Jomo for this AFCON cos in Gordon we won't reach the group stages. Everytime Gordon open his mouth he utters excuses.
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Jomo is the one who started the downfall of our squad. He completely disassembled it and his successors started to patch up things here and there. On top of that he took his team to Mvela several times. Having said that, our soccer standard is so low. We are too weak. We used to strong, but now have become so weak.
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Nov 15, 2012

Dzel

Yesterday was very disappointing. Watching Zambians fans celebrating throughout the match while we just sat there disappointed at how we were (not) playing was sad and frustrating. The thing is we played exactly the same as we would have under Pitso, extra-cautionary and no vision at all. The least you have to do is make the keeper work especially when you have home ground advantage. What is even sadder is it looks like we are back to giving automatic starts to players based on whether you play overseas or not.

To say I have lost hope in us getting out of the group stages is an understatement, Gordon must stop making excuses and concentrate on fixing what is broken.
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Nov 15, 2012

Shredder

@Dzel
Yesterday was very disappointing. Watching Zambians fans celebrating throughout the match while we just sat there disappointed at how we were (not) playing was sad and frustrating. The thing is we played exactly the same as we would have under Pitso, extra-cautionary and no vision at all. The least you have to do is make the keeper work especially when you have home ground advantage. What is even sadder is it looks like we are back to giving automatic starts to players based on whether you play overseas or not.
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Ahaaa!!! I was telling someone the same thing last night. Nunes, Dikgacoi and the Englisman(Bongani Khumalo) are not supposed to be there.
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