STUART Baxter spoke militantly as he addressed the staff at the South African embassy in Egypt, promising that Bafana Bafana will die with their boots on in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
Baxter’s men arrived in Cairo yesterday, after a mini-camp in Dubai, to start their final preparations for the continental showpiece. Bafana find themselves in Group D with Ivory Coast, Morocco and Namibia.
Today they play Angola in a friendly before they take on the Elephants on Monday at Al Salam Stadium in Cairo.
Bafana’s minimum requirement should be a place in the last 16 - the top two teams in each of the six groups and four third-placed finishers go through to the knockout stage. Bafana last reached the knockout stage in 2013, in their own backyard in a tournament where they were grouped with Cape Verde, Morocco and Angola. Since 2013 Bafana crashed out of the group stage (2015) and failed to qualify (2017).
Baxter refused to set targets this time around but promised they would hold their own in a tough group.
“Every player sitting next to me here will give their everything because they respect both their country and this team. This version of Bafana Bafana will do its best, and that guarantee should be good enough for every South African.”
The British coach has assembled a talented bunch with a good mix of experience and youth, speed and power. Baxter’s team has CAF Champions League winners, CAF Confederation Cup finalists, the current and former Premier Soccer League’s Footballer of the Year as well as several new faces.
Bafana’s attack with its good balance between speed and power features Percy Tau, Thembinkosi Lorch and Themba Zwane, whose trickery is complemented by Lebo Mothiba and Lars Veldwijk’s strength and aerial prowess.
The team spent weeks working on their chemistry, starting from their Joburg camp to their stay in Dubai.
That will be tested in Cairo against opponents who will ask questions about different aspects of the team.
“Sometimes when you call together an international squad, you struggle to make it a team,” Baxter said. “We’ve had no problem with these players, bringing them under the same flag. Sometimes they bring with them flags from all over the world and we struggle, even though they are South African, to get them to play together, respect each other and allow each other to grow.
“The strength of this squad is that when we play the other nations they will have that problem and we will not.
“That we can guarantee and that is the best guarantee that they can give any South African - that they will make sure they will sell their souls dearly.
“They will not sell their souls cheaply, and certainly will not let anyone lower our flag without a fight.”
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