Bafana Bafana
Igesund to keep cards to chest
2013-01-07 20:44
Gordon Igesund (Gallo Images)
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Cape Town - Bafana Bafana have completed preparations for their international friendly against Norway at the Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday night (20:30 kick-off).
The match will be South Africa's first since the announcement of the 23-man squad on December 30.
Bafana had an intensive training session on Monday under the watchful eye of head coach Gordon Igesund and his technical team.
Dean Furman was rested for the final session. The midfielder joined the camp on Sunday, after playing in a third-round FA Cup tie for his club Oldham Athletic in England on Saturday.
The coach will select the team from the 22 available players who have all been given a clean bill of health.
"Dean won't get a run as he has played a lot of games for his club in a short space of time, so we will rest him for tomorrow's match, because the bigger picture is the Orange Africa Cup of Nations 2013 tournament starting in less than two weeks," Igesund said.
The head coach is confident his players will do well against the 24th-ranked Norway who arrived in South Africa on January 4.
The two countries have met twice before, with South Africa winning one and Norway the other.
"We want to win tomorrow night, but we are more focused on the tournament so I won't be showing my hand fully as to which team will run out for the tournament, and also I don't want players getting injured before we begin our campaign.
"We need a complete turnaround from the last six matches we played where I was looking at players. Now I have been able to spend some time with them and we are getting somewhere.
"I want to excite people with our play, and I want the players to play with flair, pace and passion and we can only do that when we have the crowd behind us," he added.