Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams says they want to show it was no fluke or by luck that they finished third at the recent Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast when they play Algeria this evening.
The South Africans will be out to record their first victory over Algeria since 1996, when the two nations meet in their FIFA series match at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers later this evening.
Williams says they have shown with their performances against Ivory Coast in Abidjan last year and against Morocco at the AFCON, that the team has grown in leaps and bounds.
He says they just need to be more consistent. Bafana Bafana’s showing at the recent AFCON tournament brought smiles to the faces of their fans. The team finished amongst the top four for the first time in 24 years. But Bafana’s 1-1 draw against Andorra last Thursday, was a disappointing result and performance.
However, captain Williams says coach Hugo Broos used the Andorra match to have a look at new players.
He says the game against Algeria will be a big one for them with Broos saying Algeria, playing in front of their fans, will be a true test.
“It’s going to be a big one. We are playing the host nation, we know they come off a bad AFCON, they just got a new coach and that can be very dangerous. We’ve trained accordingly, we want to show why we finished number three at AFCON and we want the consistency in our performance.”
Broos echoes Williams’ sentiments.
“The motivation will be very big in the team of Algeria, they play at home, their supporters will be there. Again for us it will be a good test after AFCON, we will try to get a good result.”
Meanwhile, Broos has revealed that Stellenbosch forward Iqraam Rayners will lead Bafana Bafana’s attack in the absence of Evidence Makgopa.
“We don’t really have the big scorer even when there are guys who score rather easily in the local competition but we will see on Tuesday, Iqraam will play.”
“For Algeria is not going to be an easy game even for us is not going to be easy but we need to push hard and motivate each other to at least win the game.”
This evening’s match will be broadcast live on SABC 3 and the SABC Sport channel from 11pm with the build-up starting at 10:30pm
