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Comment: George Dearnaley
I don’t want to put a damper on the current euphoria surrounding Bafana Bafana, but wins against non-qualifiers like Colombia and Guatemala and a draw against non-qualifier Bulgaria should all be taken with a big pinch of salt.
Let’s not even mention some of the dodgy ‘home’ decisions that saw us awarded a string of penalties in those friendly matches. But beating the reigning World Champions in a warm-up match…beating them for the first time in your country’s international football history… now that’s something to get excited about!
I watched last night’s international friendly between Italy and Mexico with a lot more interest than usual. I’m a big international football fan, but the truth is I only know about five of the Mexican players’ strengths and weaknesses. There is so much we don’t know about them – and so I watched and I learnt!
They are well organised at the back and they get forward quickly. They aren’t the most physically imposing bunch of players, preferring to nick the ball off their opponents rather than flying into any 50/50 tackles.
They like to play a quick passing game, lots of movement off the ball and they are very neat and precise, playing short passes into feet – not too many hopeful long balls into space. Medina, Hernandez and Vela up front are all young, quick and have a few tricks up their sleeves to pose a threat to any defense.
Siboniso Gaxa will also have to be at his best to contain the threat posed by Medina down their left flank.
They looked a bit uncomfortable early in the match when some high balls were played into their goal area, their keeper looks about 5 kilos over weight and he also flapped at a late cross. Italy’s goal came after a corner wasn’t dealt with late in the game, but sadly these possible weaknesses don’t help Bafana as we are also not the most physically imposing bunch and we lack an aerial threat up front – unless Matthew Booth gets forward!
Their midfield isn’t great, possibly a bit soft in the tackle and this is an area that perhaps Bafana can exploit. If Steven Pienaar, Teko Modise and Simphiwe Tshabalala get enough of the ball, and if they can run at the Mexican defense, we could cause some problems for them.
And so this weekend’s warm up match for Bafana against a decent Denmark outfit will be our first ‘real’ test in a few months. Meanwhile Mexico will take great encouragement from their performance against the reigning World Champions where they created enough chances to score a few more goals. Bafana be warned.
George Dearnaley will be writing exclusively for Sport24 for the duration of the Soccer World Cup.
I don’t want to put a damper on the current euphoria surrounding Bafana Bafana, but wins against non-qualifiers like Colombia and Guatemala and a draw against non-qualifier Bulgaria should all be taken with a big pinch of salt.
Let’s not even mention some of the dodgy ‘home’ decisions that saw us awarded a string of penalties in those friendly matches. But beating the reigning World Champions in a warm-up match…beating them for the first time in your country’s international football history… now that’s something to get excited about!
I watched last night’s international friendly between Italy and Mexico with a lot more interest than usual. I’m a big international football fan, but the truth is I only know about five of the Mexican players’ strengths and weaknesses. There is so much we don’t know about them – and so I watched and I learnt!
They are well organised at the back and they get forward quickly. They aren’t the most physically imposing bunch of players, preferring to nick the ball off their opponents rather than flying into any 50/50 tackles.
They like to play a quick passing game, lots of movement off the ball and they are very neat and precise, playing short passes into feet – not too many hopeful long balls into space. Medina, Hernandez and Vela up front are all young, quick and have a few tricks up their sleeves to pose a threat to any defense.
Siboniso Gaxa will also have to be at his best to contain the threat posed by Medina down their left flank.
They looked a bit uncomfortable early in the match when some high balls were played into their goal area, their keeper looks about 5 kilos over weight and he also flapped at a late cross. Italy’s goal came after a corner wasn’t dealt with late in the game, but sadly these possible weaknesses don’t help Bafana as we are also not the most physically imposing bunch and we lack an aerial threat up front – unless Matthew Booth gets forward!
Their midfield isn’t great, possibly a bit soft in the tackle and this is an area that perhaps Bafana can exploit. If Steven Pienaar, Teko Modise and Simphiwe Tshabalala get enough of the ball, and if they can run at the Mexican defense, we could cause some problems for them.
And so this weekend’s warm up match for Bafana against a decent Denmark outfit will be our first ‘real’ test in a few months. Meanwhile Mexico will take great encouragement from their performance against the reigning World Champions where they created enough chances to score a few more goals. Bafana be warned.
George Dearnaley will be writing exclusively for Sport24 for the duration of the Soccer World Cup.
