Igesund talks a good game but just who is he kidding?
ONLY ONSaturday evening, once all this pre-tournament posturing is out of the way, and Bafana have kicked off their African Nations Cup campaign, will we truly be able to tell whether Gordon Igesund’s insatiable confidence has any basis in reality.
The Bafana Bafana coach has, however, in the lead up to the opening clash with Cape Verde, leant so heavily on blind optimism, that he increasingly gives the impression of a man residing in La La Land.
Just after the hour mark of a dreadful, goalless warm-up match against Algeria at Orlando Stadium on Saturday, the crowd began to do the Mexican wave, a clear sign of boredom, or at best an attempt at motivation in the face of an insipid Bafana display.
A clear sign, that is to everyone except the Bafana coach.
“I know that the supporters have started to believe. They were doing the Mexican wave, singing and jumping in their seats. They would not do that if they were not happy. And the players reacted. It was fantastic to get that support tonight, I think they were enjoying themselves – we played fun, exciting football in patches.”
This is plainly nonsense, and if there were exciting patches, they were as small as Bafana’s chances look right now of achieving their dream of matching the class of 1996, and lifting the African Nations Cup.
Instead, this looks every inch a side that has slumped down the world and continental rankings, and has not won a match at an African Nations Cup finals in nine years.
It is hard to discern too much from warm-up games and Igesund had said beforehand he would be hiding his tactics.
But this looks a team bereft of the attacking wit to break teams down, and a failure to score against Norway and Algeria has to be a worry.
“I keep saying I am not concerned, so let’s wait until the tournament starts, then ask me the same question,” said Igesund. “You can’t score every game you play. We played against a very good team tonight and we had chances.”
Algeria are, as Igesund repeated, the number two side in Africa at the moment, and did present an extreme- ly organised defence in Orlando.
“Against Norway, their keeper played well and we created situations,” added Igesund. “I know exactly where we are going and exactly what the team is capable of and when the tournament starts, let’s see if we are capable of scoring goals.”
Igesund certainly talks a good game. By Saturday he needs to produce one.