Depleted Bafana Bafana face Brave Warriors TODAY South Africa Southern African neighbours South Africa and Namibia will clash this afternoon in the quarterfinals of the 2013 Cosafa Cup. The match is set for 15h30 (CAT) at the Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka. South Africa’s Cosafa Cup campaign has been rocked by countless withdrawals of players from coach Gordon Igesund’s squad. There have been no less than 15 players omitted from Igesund’s original call ups. Mamelodi Sundowns ‘keeper Wayne Sandilands will therefore captain the 19-man squad, whilst defender Bevan Fransman will miss the quarterfinal match against Namibia as he will join Bafana Bafana after his side SuperSport United’s pre-season friendly match against English football giants Manchester City. “We will be very competitive, and the players will go in there with a lot of passion and commitment. We are very positive about the task ahead,” said Igesund at a media briefing on Thursdays morning as his team departed for Zambia. “We spent a year trying to get an identity for Bafana Bafana, and we are almost there. The regular players are programmed to behave in a certain way on the field, whereas the players that we are travelling with are new to the system and we can’t get it right in just two days. “We have a good game-plan, we know our opposition but it’s going to be difficult to perform as a team as the players will be coming together for the first time. But we will do well.” Igesund, however, will be up against his former player at Santos, Ricardo Mannetti. Igesund was the league winning coach in 2001/2002 PSL season where he had Mannetti as a pivotal member of the Cape Town side. The Namibian coach is looking forward to facing his former master. "Obviously it will be very special," Mannetti told MTNFootball earlier this week "I have a lot of respect for Gordon for what he has achieved and his work at the moment. "Obviously I want to get one over him and that will be very special for me." Namibia was involved in the preliminary group stage of the tournament where they topped their group. The Brave Warriors defeated Mauritius 2-1 in their opening match of the tournament and then went on to beat the Seychelles 4-2 to conclude their Group A activities. Namibia are ranked 127th in the world whilst Bafana Bafana are occupying 59th position on the global standings.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 07:48:55 +0000
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