“Go on the offensive,” that is former Bafana Bafana captain, Neil Tovey’s message to the national team’s technical staff going into the crucial Afcon tournament match against Morocco on Sunday.
Bafana, topping Group A with four points, need just one point to qualify for the quarterfinals of the tournament, which naturally should pose a conundrum to Bafana coach, Gordon Igesund wondering whether to go all out for three points or play defensively to collect the all-important one point.
Tovey, who won the tournament on home soil in 1996, says it could be dangerous for the host team to play to get one point on Sunday.
“If you go and defend and play for a point it brings a dangerous situation and you don’t want a dangerous situation. Go out, attack them and be positive. It doesn’t mean you (should) be careless in your attack … it just means you must attack them. Have the same approach we had in the last game (against Angola) and we must carry that through the tournament.”
A win for Morocco and Cape Verde Islands, who play Angola on the same day, will mean Bafana cannot qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament.
Tovey has lambasted the quality of football in the country saying that regardless of whether Bafana Bafana fares successfully or not in the tournament the country was far behind in terms of being counted among the best in the football world.
Tovey has dismissed criticism levelled at the quality of football in the tournament, with critics suggesting that the standard of football on the continent has become mediocre. But he has, however, lambasted the quality of football in the country saying that regardless of whether Bafana Bafana fares successfully or not in the tournament the country was far behind in terms of being counted among the best in the football world.
Sipho Kekana has done the interview (link below):
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