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Useful info for Parreira
23/03/2007 12:39 - (SA)
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has publicly admitted that he and his assistants know nothing about Chad, his team's next opponents in the 2008 African Cup of Nations qualifying competition.
I don't blame him; his bosses at SA Football Association should have seen this coming. Exactly 12 months ago I wrote a column (Do Your Homework Bafana - 02/03/2006), warning Safa about ignoring a grand opportunity the Cemac Cup was providing at the time.
The Cemac Cup, which is played by a group of central African states, was at the time staged in Equatorial Guinea, where Chad lost in the final to Gabon after penalties.
Safa never saw the need to send anyone on a fact-finding mission, moreso that Congo-Brazzaville, who are also in the qualifying Group 11 with Bafana, were also in action in the regional tournament. This was a good six months before the ACN qualifiers began.
My guess is that the Safa technical committee does not know the Cemac Cup. If they know it they would at least have alerted Parreira to the fact that the 2007 edition was on earlier this month, and that the very same Chad were the hosts. It is history now that the hosts went on to lift the cup on March 15, after defeating southern neighbours Central African Republic 1-0 in the final match.
I admit that sourcing information about low profile countries such as Chad is not easy. But since the upheavals in neighbouring Darfur in eastern Sudan, the discovery of oil deposits and periodical skirmishes in the capital with the rebel forces, Chad is being mentioned regularly.
A little too late?
As our national team play on Saturday in the capital N'Djamena, the little information I have about Chad may be a little too late. Here is hoping someone within the Bafana set-up would alert the highly pragmatic Brazilian mentor about the following information.
N'Djamena looks to neighbouring Cameroon for inspiration. This also means its players are known to copy the style of their more successful neighbours, especially that some of the Chadian players have moved to the Cameroonian league to gain valuable experience.
The Chadian capital is in fact a border town, and only a bridge over the Chari river separates it from Cameroon.
Bafana can rest assured that football-wise, Chad do not resemble the Indomitable Lions. Their small foreign legion is made up of players attached to unfashionable clubs in the lower divisions of French football.
But Chad are steadily improving, as seen by their recent victory in the Cemac Cup. This time last year they were rated 160th on the Fifa ranking; this month they're 135th.
By contrast South Africa are ranked 60th, and they have been dropping in the past year. Bafana are also bad travellers, despite putting up a good show winning 1-0 away to Zambia in their previous encounter. The main odds against them in the Stade Omnisport will be the vociferous home support in a jam-packed stadium, and the heat.
Psychological edge
According to the BBC's weather forecast for the weekend, N'Djamena will be sizzling at 42 degrees Celsius maximum temperature on Saturday.
The fact that kickoff will be 18:00 local time will offer little reprieve for Bafana. They should feel lucky, however, that at least they are not playing Sudan because Khartoum is boiling this weekend, at 46 degrees!
One other psychological edge for South Africa is that our coach, Parreira, is a former World Cup winner, while Chad has to be content with unknown Ousman Tigabe on the bench. More blues for the home side is that they have never qualified for the ACN's final tournament, while Bafana have played in all editions since readmission in 1992.
On paper Chad should be small fry, and Bafana must use the stage to warn the world that they are regrouping after a two-year slump. This they can achieve by winning convincingly and continue to do so in their next matches.
So Senhor Parreira, you'll see I tried my best to help. Should I add that Zambia also won in N'Djamena - 2-0 - in September 2006, and that Chad have also lost 3-1 to Congo-Brazzaville in their second qualifier in October?
Knowledge is power, and in the same token it is urgently important to imagine how would the people feel if Bafana were to become the first team this qualifying competition to lose to Chad, the weakest team of the group.
Earlier on Saturday, our soccer Olympic side will be taking on Uganda in Kampala at 14:30. This Beijing Games qualifier, and the SA-Chad game at 17:00 (SA time), will be shown live on SABC 1.
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