Soccer
Bafana to play at Orlando
2009-03-19 13:42
Johannesburg - Bafana Bafana will make a historic debut appearance at the new revamped Orlando Stadium in Soweto when they host Poland in their last international friendly match.
The match is set to take place a week before the kick off of the Fifa Confederations Cup.
The Joel Santana-coached team will battle it out with Poland on June 6 at the traditional home of South African football that has been re-built and is nearing completion, although three PSL games have already been played there.
Revealing details of this historic occasion, SAFA CEO Raymond Hack, said: “We have made special requisition from FIFA because Orlando is a World Cup stadium. The friendly match against Poland is being held at Orlando Stadium as we have done all the required processes in consultation with Fifa.”
Bafana have never played an official match at Orlando Stadium. The last time the national team went onto the pitch there was for practice match against a Select XI during the NSL era when Clive Barker was still in charge of the national team.
The FIFA Confederations Cup will run from June 14-28 as a prelude to the World Cup with the opening match to be played at Coca-Cola Park.
Meanwhile, Bafana Bafana will play another four international friendly games after the Confederations Cup in the months of September and October.
On September 5 Bafana will be up against Germany before squaring up with Ireland three days later in Dublin.
The national team will again come up against their Scandinavian opponents Norway again on October 10 and then do battle with Iceland later the same month.
Hack says the fixture dates and venues for matches to be further matches to be played in November will be announced at a later date.