The
match will form part of the country’s celebrations for the 20 years of freedom.
It will also be an occasion to hand over the FIFA World Cup baton to 2014 hosts
Brazil as well as an opportunity to unveil the two countries’ new playing kits.
Furman
said it was disappointing that Bafana Bafana were not going to the World Cup
but highlighted a number of positives in the national team.
“First
of all, our work rate is a given. That’s part of our game that will never be
questioned. That should be a given to the starting 11 and the subs that will
come on. We know against these top sides that anything less than 100 percent,
we are going to be found wanting. It’s vital that our work rate should be right
up there with everything we’ve got,” said Furman.
The
Doncaster Rovers midfielder said the team will go into the match with a
positive approach and a winning mentality.
“We
want to impose ourselves on the game. Yes we will give them the respect that
they deserve, we watch their world-class players on TV every week and we know
everything about them. Same as the Spain game, we will give them the respect
they are due but great thing about the Spain game is that we grew in confidence
as the match progressed. The more and more spells we had, we grew in
confidence.
“One
thing the coach said at halftime (against Spain) was that ‘why can’t we go on
and win this game?’ we had the belief among ourselves. Thankfully we went on
and did that and I am sure we will be going into the game with the same kind of
belief. We know it’s going to be difficult but we are very much looking forward
to it,” he said.
Furman
said playing at FNB Stadium was memorable and that it was always inspiring to
the players to play in front of a capacity crowd. He urged the local fans to
come in their numbers to urge the team on.
- SAFA
