Bafana
Bafana head coach Gordon Igesund said on Wednesday he was still very much
upbeat despite travelling disruptions that saw the team staying overnight in
Douala after failing to get the scheduled connecting flight to Yaoundé
yesterday (Tuesday).
Bafana
Bafana’s plans were thrown into disarray on Tuesday after their connecting
flight to Yaoundé was unexpectedly cancelled and had to alter their plans after
they could not proceed to their base camp.
This
means the national team can only fully train twice – tomorrow (Thursday) and
Friday – before the crunch match on Saturday against Central African Republic
(CAR).
“Ideally,
I would have liked to be on the training field today (Wednesday) but there is
nothing we can do, we have to make the best of the situation. The boys will
have a light session in the pool as there is no time to arrange a training
pitch.
“Of
course, the swimming pool activity was not part of the plan but we have to keep
the players busy. That leaves us with two days of training and I cannot blame
anybody. These things happen but it would be quite interesting to know what
exactly happened,” said Igesund.
“The
good thing is that before we left, I told the players to be mentally strong and
expect such disruptions. But we should not take it to head; we must just
continue to be strong and know what task lies ahead. If it was not for team
manager Barney Kujane leaving ahead of the team, we would have found ourselves
totally stranded.”
The
Bafana Bafana mentor believes the Lesotho international match, which Bafana won
2-0, in the bigger scheme of things, has become an important factor.
“Following
that match, we now know what we have to do, and we will do the best we can in
the remaining two days. It is a setback that we cannot fit in a third training
session but it is not a train-smash. The boys are professionals, and being at
the end of the season their fitness levels are very high. Now it becomes even
more important that we played the Lesotho match because it gives us a lot of
ideas on areas to work on,” added Igesund.
The
team will have their first training session in Yaoundé on Thursday afternoon (6
June).
