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LatinContent\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund during the international friendly against Brazil in Sao Paulo on Friday.<\/p>\n
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Ahead of Bafana Bafana\u2019s first home match under his tutelage, Gordon Igesund was still speaking fondly of their performance against Brazil, challenging his men not to take the foot off the pedal when they take on Mozambique in Mbombela this evening (8.30pm). <\/p>\n
Igesund wants to build on what he says was a \u201cpositive start\u201d to his regime, when Bafana and Brazil were only separated by a second-half goal by Hulk in Sao Paulo last Friday. <\/p>\n
While South Africa fought manfully in that friendly \u2013 against the world\u2019s most successful national football side \u2013 tonight\u2019s clash against Mozambique should be Igesund\u2019s real test, with Bafana having never failed to beat the Mambas in their three previous meetings. <\/p>\n
Igesund will tonight demand of his men to show the same \u201ccharacter and fighting spirit\u201d seen in their narrow |1-0 defeat to the Selecao. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe played in front of 50 000 people in Brazil, and the guys were really pumped up. I want them to be the same [tonight],\u201d Igesund said after concluding Bafana\u2019s only training session at Mbombela Stadium before this evening\u2019s meeting with the Mozambicans. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to play all games with the same attitude, same commitment and passion \u2013 that\u2019s what I want to instill in these players. You can\u2019t afford to be complacent because you did well against Brazil.\u201d <\/p>\n
He continued to describe the trip to Sao Paulo as \u201cexcellent\u201d in spite of defeat, something which has raised eyebrows, with cynics accusing Igesund of celebrating a loss. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Brazil trip was excellent. We played against a very good team that, even though they were not on form, had world class players. A lot of people misinterpreted our happiness regarding the Brazil match. <\/p>\n
\u201cOf course we were not happy about losing; we want to win every game. But we had to be pleased with the effort and commitment the players put in. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey showed tremendous fighting spirit and adapted quickly to our methods. There certainly were a lot of positives out of that game.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of the people critical of Bafana\u2019s performance last Friday was former national coach Ted Dumitru, who reportedly described the Brazil side that faced Bafana as SA\u2019s worst ever opponents. <\/p>\n
Quizzed on this, Igesund was loath to comment, but ended up commenting anyway. <\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s that guy [Dumitru]? We got all our people watching the game there and here on TV and 99 percent of them said we played well. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe never allowed Brazil an inch to play. How can they be the worst side when they had two players from Barcelona, three from Real Madrid, two from Chelsea? <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got no comment on people who have agendas. They must carry on because they are entitled to their opinions. I know what I\u2019m doing and what I\u2019m trying to achieve,\u201d Igesund said. <\/p>\n
The immediate goal for tonight\u2019s clash is clear: give some of the players who didn\u2019t get a chance against Brazil a run. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we have to change the team a bit\u2026 try one or two situations,\u201d Igesund said when asked about changes to his line-up. <\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot field the strongest team all the time. The bigger picture is the African Nations Cup [next year] and we don\u2019t have a lot of time. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not important for us to have good form now and disappoint at the Nations Cup. We will try to win [tonight\u2019s game] convincingly, but we also have to strike a balance because we need to see if everybody is ready for this stage.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mozambique come into tonight\u2019s game having shocked Morocco 2-0 at the weekend in a Nations Cup qualifier. <\/p>\n
* Watch SA v Mozambique tonight on SABC1 at 8.30pm<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LatinContent\/Getty Images Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund during the international friendly against Brazil in Sao Paulo on Friday. Ahead of Bafana Bafana\u2019s first home match under his tutelage, Gordon Igesund was still speaking fondly of their performance against Brazil, challenging his men not to take the foot off the pedal when they take on Mozambique […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-14534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}