BAFANA Bafana coach Gordon Igesund savoured what he called a “special night” in beating world champions Spain 1-0 in Tuesday’s international friendly at FNB Stadium, but said there was still plenty of work to do.
Bernard Parker’s 56th-minute strike shocked the strangely flat world No 1-ranked team. Igesund said the result showed Bafana can compete with the best.
“I’ve said this before, that we’ve had a plan,” the coach said. “Sometimes these plans take a lot of time and it’s a lot of looking at players, chopping and changing, and sometimes you get criticised.
“I don’t think we should get carried away. There is still a lot of work to be done. Our vision is the 2015 and 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and 2018 World Cup. We have to keep working and plugging away – don’t compromise our principles. Keep doing the right thing and I’m sure we’ll progress more.”
Igesund said the shock result was a further vindication of his side’s positive football. Bafana reached the quarterfinals as hosts of the Afcon in February, losing on penalties to Mali, but could not progress to the final round of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.
“We never qualified for the World Cup, but we beat the world champions. So that’s something nice,” Igesund said.
“I think we’ve played very good football for the last 15 months. We’ve got a master plan, we’re sticking to it.
“When I took over our football was in a bad situation. There was no confidence, and we had problems. All the coaches before me had the same problems with development, but nothing was done about it. Now the FA is doing something about it.
“From a personal point of view it’s always good to win a match, whether it’s against Swaziland or the world champions. It brings confidence to the country and our football. But tonight was a special night, because we showed we can match the best.”
Igesund gave a rare start to Andile Jali, whose skills played a big role in wresting the match in Bafana’s favour after a nervous start, before having to go off injured in the 49th minute.
“Any player, when you’re playing as well as he was and enjoying yourself against the world champions, you don’t want to come off,” Igesund said.
Tuesday night’s defeat was just Spain’s second this year following the 3-0 Confed Cup final loss to Brazil. The world and European champions’ previous defeat came in November 2011, 1-0 against England at Wembley.
Cracks have begun to show for La Roja following an almost invincible era. They could only beat 119th-ranked Equatorial Guinea 2-1 in Malabo on Saturday.
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque as much as admitted his team were outplayed by Bafana.
“The first 20 minutes from us were quite good. But little by little the South African team improved and by the end they were the better side,” he said.
“It has been a long trip and we had no time to rest and little time to train, but that is no excuse.”
Some marginal offside decisions by the officials from Lesotho could have led to at least one Spain goal in the first half had they gone the other way. But La Roja were also bizarrely flat in attack.
“There was a lack of aggression from the Spanish team in attack,” Del Bosque said.
Igesund is over the moon with Bafana’s ‘night of the knives’
Bernard Parker’s 56th-minute strike shocked the strangely flat world No 1-ranked team. Igesund said the result showed Bafana can compete with the best.
“I’ve said this before, that we’ve had a plan,” the coach said. “Sometimes these plans take a lot of time and it’s a lot of looking at players, chopping and changing, and sometimes you get criticised.
“I don’t think we should get carried away. There is still a lot of work to be done. Our vision is the 2015 and 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and 2018 World Cup. We have to keep working and plugging away – don’t compromise our principles. Keep doing the right thing and I’m sure we’ll progress more.”
Igesund said the shock result was a further vindication of his side’s positive football. Bafana reached the quarterfinals as hosts of the Afcon in February, losing on penalties to Mali, but could not progress to the final round of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.
“We never qualified for the World Cup, but we beat the world champions. So that’s something nice,” Igesund said.
“I think we’ve played very good football for the last 15 months. We’ve got a master plan, we’re sticking to it.
“When I took over our football was in a bad situation. There was no confidence, and we had problems. All the coaches before me had the same problems with development, but nothing was done about it. Now the FA is doing something about it.
“From a personal point of view it’s always good to win a match, whether it’s against Swaziland or the world champions. It brings confidence to the country and our football. But tonight was a special night, because we showed we can match the best.”
Igesund gave a rare start to Andile Jali, whose skills played a big role in wresting the match in Bafana’s favour after a nervous start, before having to go off injured in the 49th minute.
“Any player, when you’re playing as well as he was and enjoying yourself against the world champions, you don’t want to come off,” Igesund said.
Tuesday night’s defeat was just Spain’s second this year following the 3-0 Confed Cup final loss to Brazil. The world and European champions’ previous defeat came in November 2011, 1-0 against England at Wembley.
Cracks have begun to show for La Roja following an almost invincible era. They could only beat 119th-ranked Equatorial Guinea 2-1 in Malabo on Saturday.
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque as much as admitted his team were outplayed by Bafana.
“The first 20 minutes from us were quite good. But little by little the South African team improved and by the end they were the better side,” he said.
“It has been a long trip and we had no time to rest and little time to train, but that is no excuse.”
Some marginal offside decisions by the officials from Lesotho could have led to at least one Spain goal in the first half had they gone the other way. But La Roja were also bizarrely flat in attack.
“There was a lack of aggression from the Spanish team in attack,” Del Bosque said.
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