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'Bafana will find the net'

ROUGH JUSTICE: Bafana's Tokelo Rantie is fouled by Algeria's Djameleddne Mesbah during the international friendly played at Orlando Stadium at the weekend. Photo: Veli Nhlapo
ROUGH JUSTICE: Bafana's Tokelo Rantie is fouled by Algeria's Djameleddne Mesbah during the international friendly played at Orlando Stadium at the weekend. Photo: Veli Nhlapo

Igesund holds his ground

NATIONAL coach Gordon Igesund believes that come the kickoff to the Africa Cup of Nations, Bafana Bafana will be able to find the net, despite worries exacerbated by the 0-0 draw in their final warm-up game against Algeria at Orlando Stadium on Saturday night.

South Africa play the opening game of the tournament against Cape Verde at the National Stadium on Saturday.

In a 1-0 defeat against Norway on Tuesday and Saturday night's goalless draw the South Africans looked solid and structured - and creative in midfield - but weak in attack.

Igesund was tetchy and defensive to proportions bordering on those of predecessor Pitso Mosimane in the post-match press conference at Orlando.

He became irritated when asked to broach the subject of Bafana's most obvious flaw - and the one glaring weak point that, if not overcome, will scupper their Afcon chances - goal-scoring.

"I keep saying this - I'm not concerned about that. Let's wait until the tournament starts and then we can talk about goalscoring. Ask me the same question after the tournament's been played," the coach said.

"You can't just go out there and score goals in every game you play. We played against a very good team tonight. I don't want to harp on this all the time. It's something that's becoming a cliché now.

"It's not the same story - the team is improving all the time and I'm happy with what's going on and that's what's important. I know exactly where we're going and when the tournament starts let's see if we're able to score goals or not."

Bafana's lack of aggression in the final third was identified by Igesund's Algeria compatriot, Bosnian coach Franco Vahid Halilhodzic.

"South Africa are very dangerous on the counterattack, though maybe lacking in physicality in the six-yard box," the Algeria coach said.

Bizarrely, Igesund initially said he had "no concerns at all" after the game, then later admitted when pressed that there were areas, such as the anonymity of Dean Furman in defensive midfield, that had not been entirely to his liking.

It seemed an overreaction by the coach, especially given that his team had not performed badly against a strong Algeria, who are ranked 19th in the world.

"We played against a very good team - they're the No2-ranked team in Africa," Igesund said.

"So I was very happy with the performance. I thought we were the better team out there and each day we're getting better - I'm not worried about anything at this stage.

"They were much more bigger than us and much more physical than us, but you couldn't see that. Algeria didn't bully us off the ball. We had much more possession than them. They are the second best team in Africa and only had one shot at our goal. So I'm very pleased.

"Obviously, we would have liked to have won the game. We had a few chances that we didn't really miss, but their keeper (Adrien Mbolhi) made good saves."

The coach did finally admit Bafana are "still a work in progress".

"We've still got a lot of work to do, especially as far as the set-pieces are concerned. Up until now I still haven't worked on set- pieces and I've done that for a reason - I didn't want to do any of the set-pieces that we're going to use in the tournament."

After the Cape Verde match Bafana meet Morocco on January 23 and Angola on the 27th, both in Durban, in their remaining Group A games.

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