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Bafana give Parreira first win
24/03/2007 19:32 - (SA)
N'Djamena - Carlos Alberto Parreira made a winning start as coach of South Africa when the 2010 World Cup hosts cruised to a 3-0 triumph over Chad in an African Nations Cup qualifier on Saturday.
Striker Surprise Moriri headed Bafana Bafana in front after 32 minutes and midfielder Delron Buckey struck the crucial second goal as the first half entered stoppage time.
Any doubt about the outcome ended with 14 minutes left in the hot, dusty Chadian capital when Sibusiso Zuma atoned for several first half misses by stabbing the ball into the net and completing the rout.
Victory lifted slow starters South Africa to the top of Group 11 with seven points from three matches after a 0-0 home draw with Congo and a gritty 1-0 win in Zambia last year.
Congo host Zambia in Brazzaville on Sunday and a two-goal win for the 'Red Devils' would lift them above Bafana Bafana because they would have scored more goals.
The 12 group winners are guaranteed places at the finals of the biennial tournament in Ghana next January and February with the best three runners-up also qualifying.
Parreira led his native Brazil to the 1994 World Cup title and quit after the defending champions made a quarter-finals exit to France in the same competition last year.
He promised South Africans victory in central Africa, but stressed that beautiful Brazil-style football would come a distant second to securing maximum points as Bafana seek a seventh consecutive Nations Cup appearance.
And so it proved as the visitors adapted well to a hard, bumpy national stadium pitch and created numerous chances while restricting Chad to a few timid efforts that never troubled goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez.
A relaxed Parreira could even afford the luxury of taking off scorers Moriri and Buckley during the second half of a match halted for five minues near the end when a piece of tile struck a Benin assistant referee.
- AFP
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