Fierce competition in Bafana squad - Furman
Bafana Bafana will face Guinea-Bissau in a friendly international in Durban tomorrow.
Listen to the full interview here, or read our story below.
Kickoff at Moses Mabhida Stadium in scheduled for 15h00.
Bafana are 62nd in the latest FIFA rankings, while Guinea-Bissau are ranked 80th in the world.
Dean Furman is one of the Bafana vice-captains for the clash in Durban.
Furman feels there is fierce competition for places in this Bafana squad.
"I think when you look all over the squad, there is no one who can say for sure that they will be playing on Saturday. Everyone is fighting for a position. I think if I look at it from my personal point of view, the competition for midfield places is extremely high. I think everyone is at the top of their game at the moment. We are all pushing each other to be better and I think that can only be healthy for us as a national team. We have some players who are not even in the squad. I know Bongani Zungu is coming back to form and playing a lot of games in Portugal. I am sure he is looking at getting back into the squad. It is great to have such competition. I think it is difficult for the coach to select his team. Hopefully over the next two games everybody will get a chance and keep preparing and forming partnerships. Hopefully when the World Cup qualifiers and AFCON qualifiers come around we will have that settled pairing or however the coach wants to set it up. Hopefully these games can be used as preparation for that. Competition in the squad is as high as I have ever seen," Furman said.
Furman believes preparations for the Guinea-Bissau match have progressed nicely.
"The camp has been a good one. We always love coming here to Durban. The hotel is great and the people are great. We usually get a great crowd at Moses Mabhida and very often we produce a good performance. We are excited for the game tomorrow and our build-up has been pretty spot-on. Training has been good and we have played a game against Golden Arrows. That was a great run-out for us. There is only so much you can do in training. I think it is important to get those practice games in. Obviously it is only a friendly tomorrow, but it was still good to get a practice game in as part of the build-up. We have a lot of different players coming in from both local and European clubs. We also have some young players who have not been in the Bafana set-up before. We have some players who have been out of the squad for a period of time. So it was great to get back together and get that practice game in. It was a good run-out against Arrows and it is always nice to win," Furman added.
Furman believes the South African Football Association has made good choices in Guinea-Bissau and Angola for the friendlies this month.
"It is all about preparation for us. I think SAFA has done great in finding two former Portuguese colonies for us to play against. They should be similar to Cape Verde Islands who we will be facing in World Cup qualifying. It will obviously not be the same, but should give us an idea of what we will be up against in Cape Verde. We are obviously familiar with Angola from our play-offs and the CHAN games we played against them. Guinea-Bissau were obviously at the AFCON this year. They are a good side and it is going to be a difficult game tomorrow. We had Neil Tovey come and speak to us the other day and he said one of the things that is vital for us is our home form. We have to start putting nations to bed when we play at home. We have to make sure that South Africa is a very difficult place for teams to come. Winning breeds confidence and that is what we want to do against Guinea-Bissau tomorrow," Furman said.
Furman feels Bafana have a fair idea of what to expect from their opponents tomorrow.
"We have worked with our video analyst and the coaches over the last few days. We have been watching clips. We have been watching the areas where we feel we can exploit them. We have also been seeing the areas where they are particularly strong. So we have a good understanding of what they are all about. We feel that we know how they will play. Obviously on the day they could come up with something completely new, but from the games we have watched, we do have an understanding of how we feel they are going to play and we have been working all week on how we can exploit that," Furman concluded.
Bafana will face Angola at Buffalo City Stadium in East London on Tuesday, 28 March 2017. Kickoff is at 19h00.
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre
Bafana are 62nd in the latest FIFA rankings, while Guinea-Bissau are ranked 80th in the world.
Dean Furman is one of the Bafana vice-captains for the clash in Durban.
Furman feels there is fierce competition for places in this Bafana squad.
"I think when you look all over the squad, there is no one who can say for sure that they will be playing on Saturday. Everyone is fighting for a position. I think if I look at it from my personal point of view, the competition for midfield places is extremely high. I think everyone is at the top of their game at the moment. We are all pushing each other to be better and I think that can only be healthy for us as a national team. We have some players who are not even in the squad. I know Bongani Zungu is coming back to form and playing a lot of games in Portugal. I am sure he is looking at getting back into the squad. It is great to have such competition. I think it is difficult for the coach to select his team. Hopefully over the next two games everybody will get a chance and keep preparing and forming partnerships. Hopefully when the World Cup qualifiers and AFCON qualifiers come around we will have that settled pairing or however the coach wants to set it up. Hopefully these games can be used as preparation for that. Competition in the squad is as high as I have ever seen," Furman said.
Furman believes preparations for the Guinea-Bissau match have progressed nicely.
"The camp has been a good one. We always love coming here to Durban. The hotel is great and the people are great. We usually get a great crowd at Moses Mabhida and very often we produce a good performance. We are excited for the game tomorrow and our build-up has been pretty spot-on. Training has been good and we have played a game against Golden Arrows. That was a great run-out for us. There is only so much you can do in training. I think it is important to get those practice games in. Obviously it is only a friendly tomorrow, but it was still good to get a practice game in as part of the build-up. We have a lot of different players coming in from both local and European clubs. We also have some young players who have not been in the Bafana set-up before. We have some players who have been out of the squad for a period of time. So it was great to get back together and get that practice game in. It was a good run-out against Arrows and it is always nice to win," Furman added.
Furman believes the South African Football Association has made good choices in Guinea-Bissau and Angola for the friendlies this month.
"It is all about preparation for us. I think SAFA has done great in finding two former Portuguese colonies for us to play against. They should be similar to Cape Verde Islands who we will be facing in World Cup qualifying. It will obviously not be the same, but should give us an idea of what we will be up against in Cape Verde. We are obviously familiar with Angola from our play-offs and the CHAN games we played against them. Guinea-Bissau were obviously at the AFCON this year. They are a good side and it is going to be a difficult game tomorrow. We had Neil Tovey come and speak to us the other day and he said one of the things that is vital for us is our home form. We have to start putting nations to bed when we play at home. We have to make sure that South Africa is a very difficult place for teams to come. Winning breeds confidence and that is what we want to do against Guinea-Bissau tomorrow," Furman said.
Furman feels Bafana have a fair idea of what to expect from their opponents tomorrow.
"We have worked with our video analyst and the coaches over the last few days. We have been watching clips. We have been watching the areas where we feel we can exploit them. We have also been seeing the areas where they are particularly strong. So we have a good understanding of what they are all about. We feel that we know how they will play. Obviously on the day they could come up with something completely new, but from the games we have watched, we do have an understanding of how we feel they are going to play and we have been working all week on how we can exploit that," Furman concluded.
Bafana will face Angola at Buffalo City Stadium in East London on Tuesday, 28 March 2017. Kickoff is at 19h00.
Twitter - @SportswaveAndre