Story: Zakaria Alhassan, Tamale
THE South African national team coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, has described his team’s group as one of the most balanced in the tournament, noting that, “ any country that qualifies from his group stands the chance of making it to the finals.”
According to him, his team intends to achieve that feat by playing good and entertaining football to “achieve the desired results that can lead us to annex the trophy.”
He said he had a crop of well-groomed players fit to carry out the assignment of qualifying the team to the next level of the competition. Bafana Bafana is in the Tamale based group ‘D’ that is made up of Tunisia, Senegal and Angola.
This was corroborated by the Captain of the side, Aaron Mokoena, who intimated that “we are well prepared and hope to go as far as we can; our biggest event, though, the tournament was going to be a tough one. The team was determined to surmount the task to be among the best.
Both the coach and captain were speaking to the press after touching down at the Tamale Airport directly from South Africa at about 6:5 pm on Saturday. The 31-member contingent was led by a national executive member of the South African Football Association (SAFA), Mr Mandha Mazibuko.
The team was cheered on arrival by enthusiastic local fans that had thronged the airport on Benz buses amidst drumming and dancing.
The Communication and Media Officer of the SAFA, Mr Sifisco Cele, expressed appreciation for the warm reception accorded the team and hoped that more fans would rally behind the team in their matches.
The Tamale Metropolitan Chief executive, Mr Mohammed Amin Adam Anta, officials of the Tamale Venue Organising Committee (TVOC) and some district chief executives were at the airport to receive the team.
So far all the four competing countries have arrived in the metropolis for the tournament.
The first match in group “D” kicks-off tomorrow between Tunisia and Senegal.
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