Bafana Bafana Captain Dean Furman says his team is capable of causing an upset in tonight’s Group C Africa Cup decider against Ghana in Mongomo, Equitorial Guinea. South Africa are in a desperate situation needing a win to advance to the next round.
Furman says although the odds are stacked heavily against Bafana Bafana, they will push for a win against second-placed Black Stars.
“We’ve been proving people wrong since the very start of this group no one expected us to go and win games away, some in Africa. Everyone expected Nigeria to cruise through our qualification group. They struggled. They went out and we went and won games away. So, we know, as a team, we can cause upsets and we can prove people wrong and this tournament has shown it is open for anyone. There are teams who’ve upset the odds. The odds are stacked against us. Then great! We will go and prove the odds wrong and hopefully, we can go and get that win.”
Bafana have a better head-to-head record than Ghana in their ten meetings to date. South Africa have won six matches, Ghana winning only two, with the other two matches ending in draws.
But Furman says history won’t play a big part in Tuesday’s encounter.
“Ghana are a very good team. They’ve got very good players. They’ve got a great record in the Afcon. We know all about that. But this game is 90 minutes … there’s gonna be a fight out there. No, one is gonna be thinking what happened in the past.”
“We’ve got not only surprises. I think they are in for a high jump.”
Mashaba has made four changes to his starting 11. And for the third time in as many matches, Bafana has a new No.: 1 – this time Brilliant Khuzwayo being the last line of defence.
Ever since qualification, this has been a team to battle and beat the odds.
With the Senegal-vs-Algeria match kicking off at the same time, focus needs to remain on the job at hand.
Ideally, a Senegal win will help the national team, but if Algeria win, goals will be at a high premium.
And they’ve been hard to come by in the previous two matches.
Shakes Mashaba says, “If you look at the standings on the log, of all four teams no one is sure until we play our last matches, to say who is going through and who is remaining.”
It’s an incredibly tight set of circumstances. However, the support for Bafana endures.
Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula, “I’m predicting a win for South Africa on Tuesday. Ghana I don’t know what they must do. They must get their juju. I don’t know from where but it’s going to be very tough for them. We’ve got not only surprises. I think they are in for a high jump.”
– By
