Bafana must box clever in Cup tie
Coetzee says SA will tread carefully against Angola despite advantage
A TWO-GOAL lead can be tricky and presents its own challenges to Bafana Bafana, but Angola have a tactical tightrope to walk in tonight’s second leg 2018 World Cup qualifier at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
South Africa earned a healthy 3-1 lead from an impressive away victory in Benguela on Friday and stand on the verge of progressing to the group stage of qualifying for Russia 2018.
An early goal to Angola might start some butterflies fluttering for the South Africans, but Palancas Negras have the far trickier 90 minutes to negotiate.
If the Angolans attack, SA have a cushion to sit back on and hit them on the counter-attack. And yet Angola also cannot afford to defend themselves.
“We know it’s going to be a tough game. The 3-1 scoreline could make it tricky,” Bafana centre-back Rivaldo Coetzee said.
“We know Angola are going to want to come all guns blazing. But they also know they cannot be too open, because then we can hit them on the counter.
“So I think they might have to be a bit conservative. But we’re not worried about them – we’ll focus on our game and on having a good game.”
South Africa bounced back from conceding an early goal – in the second minute by Gelson – in Benguela. Bafana appeared to have learnt lessons from where an early strike led to a 3-1 capitulation in Mauritania in September that has put SA’s qualification for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in jeopardy.
“In all games we play, the coach [Shakes Mashaba] reminds us the first 20 minutes are crucial – teams will come out guns blazing. And conceding early, especially in away games, is not ideal,” said Coetzee.
“But sometimes it can be a good thing to wake the team up and remind them the game is on – you need to switch on now.
“What happened in Mauritania – that kind of thing can depend on how good you are on a day. Although, overall in that game, I don’t think we played badly. We had a lot of possession – unfortunately we couldn’t convert chances and conceded silly goals.
“That’s something we learnt from. Against Angola we dealt a lot better with the situations that we faced.”
Andile Jali is suspended for having received a second booking for inciting the fans after scoring the third goal via a penalty.
In defensive midfield Mashaba appears to have a straight choice between Dean Furman and Kamohelo Mokotjo, who has had precious little Bafana exposure despite consistently receiving glowing reviews in Holland.
“Mokotjo’s a very good player – he’s capable of so much. He can dictate a game, set the tempo of it, knows when to slow it down and play it quick.
“But obviously it’s up to the coach who he decides to play on the day,” said Coetzee. NOT so long ago Bafana Bafana had a serious goal-scoring allergy that made them sneeze badly in front of goal in crucial matches.
Despite Friday’s 3-1 win against Angola at the Ombaka Stadium in Angola, tonight’s return clash at the Moses Mabhida Stadium will determine if a vaccine is being manufactured.
Bafana midfielder Mandla Masango believes there is a greater force that controls how many goals they score in a match. A flood of goals similar to the rain needed to break the drought in KwaZulu-Natal should not be expected if Bafana’s rather inexplicable nature of not being able to score in home ties is factored in.
However, keeping Angola scoreless is all that is required to progress to the next round of World Cup qualifiers even though Bafana would not like to wallow in their recent goal-scoring mediocrity.
“There’s always room for improvement and in every game we take part in, we play to win. We try to score as many goals as possible but if the man upstairs decides that there will only be two or three goals scored, then it’s going to be like that,” said Masango.
“The guys are totally focused and they know what’s at stake. We want to make the country proud because it’s been a while since we’ve done that. We know what we need to do and mentally we are ready for the game.”
The mental preparation aspect is a very important one considering Bafana had one of the harder ties to contend with. Relative continental giants like Nigeria, Mali, Senegal and Egypt find themselves with mountains to climb after negative results against minnow teams.
They have the comfort of home ties to finish off their deals but the sucker punches thrown by teams like Madagascar, Swaziland, Chad and Botswana were noticed by Masango.
Bafana have earned themselves a reputation as continental warriors due to their barnstorming 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification where more points were earned on the road.
That reputation was put to the test in Mauritania and South Africa failed dismally.
“It’s not a matter of qualifying early but a matter of qualifying for the tournament, which is the most important thing on our minds. As players, we want to do our best to ensure that goal is achieved and compete against the world has to offer,” he said.
“I was surprised and shocked with some of the results but with football, you can’t take anything for granted. It shows that the other countries are developing their football.”