Africa registers disasterous World Cup friendlies


Reading time 2 min.
arton17089

Carlos Alberto Parreira should have had a sleepless night Wednesday after his charges dug deep to salvage an undeserved one-all draw with minnows Namibia in their international friendly.

Namibia’s “Brave Warriors”- a team consisting of teachers and part-time professionals surprised their hosts when Rudolf Bester broke the ice in the 41st minute however Katlego Mphela cancelled the deficit 28 minutes later.

Bafana Bafana went back to their showboating, dribbling and passing sideways in the process playing right into Namibia’s hands.

It was only in the second half after a few choice words from head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira that Bafana started showing their hunger and drive against the Brave Warriors who lived up to their nickname.

The match produced more questions than answers for Parreira against their 109th world ranked neighbours.

None of Bafana’s World Cup Group A opponents, Mexico, Uruguay or France despite losing 2-0 Spain, one of the World Cup favorites will be losing any sleep about facing Bafana in June after this showing.

But Parreira, after the game told the media that there is no need to panic as he believes he will be able to mould Bafana into a competitive.

“It is always better to win, but this draw is not the end of the world as we will not face sides like Namibia in the World Cup.

“Namibia defended with 10 men behind the ball and at the World Cup it
will be us that will be under pressure in defence. It will be totally different” said the Brazilian born coach.

The next step comes Thursday when Parreira announce 28 players for a
three-week training camp in Brazil. In Brazil, Parreira says he wants to work on fitness and experience and has lined up several matches against Brazilian clubs.

South Africa will have a second training camp in Germany in April and then begin a third and final preparatory camp on home soil from May 5.

In other games featuring African world cup teams, Cameroon held world champions Italy to a 0-0 draw Monaco, Algeria where trashed 3-0 by Serbia, Ivory Coast fell 2-0 to South Korea, Nigeria made light weight of DR Congo 5-2 and Ghana lost 2-1 to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

South africa  Read latest news and features from South africa : business, politics, culture, life & style, entertainment and sports
Support Follow Afrik-News on Google News