Bafana Bafana midfielder-cum-striker Thuso Phala says they are prepared to fight to the bitter end to get out of the deep hole they find themselves in.
Phala was referring to the 1-3 loss to Algeria in the opening clash of the CAF Orange Africa Cup of Nations Equatorial Guinea 2015 tournament on Monday January 23 at Stade de Mongomo.
The result has put South Africa in a difficult position to qualify for the knockout stages.
“The dressing room was sad, we were very disappointed, because in all honesty that was a game we were supposed to win and by a big margin. We let the coach down, we let ourselves and the country down, but it is important for us to forget about the game as soon as we can so we can focus on the challenge ahead.
“The lesson we learnt out of this match is that we have to take our chances, because if we miss them, we will be putting ourselves under pressure. We could have wrapped that game up early,” said Phala, who scored South Africa’s solitary goal in that match.
Bafana Bafana will be hoping for a positive outcome when they face Senegal tonight, Friday January 23 at the Estadio de Mongomo.
“We all come from teams who have lost games before; we have all been in a hole before. We came together as players and spoke about it. We keep motivating ourselves, because we know we are a good team and we will come back strongly in the remaining two games.
“Senegal has big boys who play overseas and they play good football. They beat Ghana, which shows they are no pushovers. We knew coming to this tournament that all our first three games are going to be difficult. So against Senegal we must just go there and take our chances and win that game,” added Phala.
“They are more physical, taller and they will have an advantage in set pieces, but at the same time they are slower than us, which is where we have an advantage. We outpaced the Algerians especially in the second half. We have a way of playing around their physical strength, because we have the agility.”
Phala says the players have rallied behind striker Tokelo Rantie, who missed a penalty in the match.
“We went to him and told him to hold his head high; we told him that these things happen. We have seen players miss penalties in the World Cup tournament but bounced back. Tokelo is a great player and has a good character; he is needed for upcoming games. Hopefully his confidence will be back and he will score goals for us,” said Phala.
His sentiments were echoed by assistant coach Thabo Senong.
“We have our penalty takers, free kick takers and corner kick takers – for penalties we have Oupa (Manyisa), Andile (Jali) and (Tokelo) Rantie as well as (Bernard) Parker and anyone of them can take it. Rantie had a chance and we all believed and hoped he would get a goal, it was just unfortunate for him, but we believe he is still going to score a lot of goals for us. That is football, it is just one of those things where the player you rely on doesn’t get a goal, but going into the next match it will be a different ball game altogether,” said Senong.
The Bafana Bafana assistant is also confident about the match against Senegal.
“We still believe we will get the needed result to go through to the next round. We are looking forward to getting three points against Senegal, but I must add that it is not an easy side to beat. They have very good attackers, but are a bit slow at the back. If we can use our strength, our ability to get behind their players and take our chances when we are in and around the box, I believe we have a chance of victory,” said Senong.
Bafana Bafana and Senegal will kick off at 21:00 South African time.
In an earlier match in the same group, Ghana will take on Algeria.
