Pitso Mosimane (Gallo)

Read more on:   

• aaron mokoena

• bongani khumalo

• pitso mosimane

• carlos alberto parreira

• johannesburg

• south africa

Related Links

• Bafana capable of SWC glory
• Mosimane: 'Fitness is key'
• Pitso and Parreira had a plan

Johannesburg - Pitso Mosimane has admitted Bafana Bafana are wary of the carpet football being played by their World Cup opponents Mexico.

The 2010 hosts open the showpiece against El Tri, who recently dispatched of Italy with ease.

Carlos Alberto Parreira's number two watched that game and has been studying the 17th-ranked team closely.

"You have to play it close hey, you can't open up yourself up. If you are going to play too open Mexico will kill you," he said after Bafana beat Denmark.

"I liked what Parreira said the other day about the blanket when he said football is like when you have a short blanket. You cover the head and you expose the feet, that is when you are attacking and you cover the feet that's when you are defending but you expose your head, that's when the opposition attacks you.

"So you are facing a Mexico side that is not afraid. They are not afraid to throw men forward and that makes them dangerous, but for me the Denmark game was an ice breaker," he said.

Mosimane revealed Bafana's biggest aim against Denmark, was to not make silly errors.

"Denmark was a very closed game and whoever made a mistake was going to be punished," he said.

"We said to the boys at half-time that don't make mistakes, because you know the Europeans; you make a mistake they capitalise on it and punish you.

"One mistake they will kill you, but we worked around their strategy quite well. In the last 10 minutes they played the long ball as Europeans do and they were dropping them to their big boys upfront but fortunately Bongani (Khumalo) and Aaron (Mokoena) did well to cover," Mosimane concluded.