Johannesburg – Two days after Spain’s World Cup-winning coach Vicente del Bosque revealed he had agreed to stay on with the national team to 2016, Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund spoke of the importance of continuity in a national team set-up.
Del Bosque has been a success with the Spanish national team, winning the World Cup on African soil before leading his immensely talented side to European Championship success two years later in Poland and Ukraine. Despite losing out to Brazil in the Confederations Cup earlier this year, Spain have stayed the No1 ranked side in the world for the last two years with Del Bosque in charge.
Not the same can be said for Igesund, who has been with the national team a little over a year.
The multiple league winning coach recently failed to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil and is now under loads of pressure to win the African Nations Championships (Chan) tournament that South Africa will host in January. Failing to win the competition will likely mean the boot.
On Sunday Igesund was preaching the importance of continuity, using his counterpart Del Bosque, who he’ll face on Tuesday when Bafana host Spain at FNB Stadium (8.30pm), as an example.
“Look, I always feel it’s good to have continuity. Because, for example, in the last 18 months we have created an identity for South African football which we never had before. We are playing a style of football that the players are getting accustomed to and enjoying. And the people are enjoying it too. That’s continuity and we need to keep that going now.
“It’s fantastic that their coach has been given a contract. He’s one of the best coaches in the world. He has done a fantastic job and he deserves everything he is getting.
“He is world champion and European champion. Good luck to him. We will see what happens here,” said Igesund.
Back in March 1998, when Bongani Zungu was five and Itumeleng Khune was 10, Bafana were ranked 20th on the Fifa rankings, five places above Spain. Things have changed radically since then. Spain are the best side in the world, while Bafana have contrived to confirm the sorry state the country’s football is in, or has been, for a good number of years.
As the two sides prepare to clash on tuesday, few would expect a Bafana win, but Igesund wants his side to spoil Spain’s return to FNB Stadium, where they beat the Netherlands 1-0 courtesy of an Andres Iniesta goal to win their first ever World Cup title in 2010. “We want to be competitive. We are prepared and I think this will be a very competitive game. We’re not going to sit back; we’re going to take the game to them. I believe sometimes, unfortunately, we get so awed by teams coming here (to South Africa), he said.
“We can match teams. If we keep our shape properly and we play properly, we can go out there and we can have a good display, at the same time not under-estimating them.”
After watching his locally-based squad beat Swaziland 3-0 away from home on Friday night, Igesund is eager to see some of his foreign-based players make their mark against the world champions.
Tokelo Rantie, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Dean Furman, Kamogelo Mokotjo and Daylon Claasen were all in training yesterday ahead of the clash.
“It’s important for people to know that we were using the Swaziland game as preparation for Chan. Now I am preparing for Spain with our overseas-based players. Let’s take it one game at a time.”
Spain’s midfielder Xabi Alonso is not likely to feature after suffering an injury in their 2-1 victory over Equatorial Guinea at the weekend. Spain landed At OR Tambo International Airport yesterday morning and had a training session at Orlando Stadium last night.
The Star