New Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter said he was impressed after he concluded his first training session with the national side at the Free State Technikon on Wednesday in preparation for Saturday’s 2006 World Cup Group B qualifier against Cape Verde at Vodacom Park.
”I could see the adrenaline pumping. The players worked hard and I was pleased with the workout,” said Baxter.
Baxter worked on defence and on holding on to possession. Over the years Bafana’s one downfall has been the way in which they have easily surrendered the ball.
Baxter again stressed that Cape Verde, who arrived in the Free State capital on Wednesday afternoon, would be no pushovers.
”Cape Verde have gone about buying a team to compete in the qualifiers. Most of their players feature in the various leagues in Portugal so they may not have been together for long but they will have European experience and [are] not an easy team to play against,” said the Bafana coach.
The Cape Verde coach, Alexandre Althinho, arrived in the Free State capital with a new-look squad.
”We have made six or seven changes to the squad that defeated Swaziland [4-1 on aggregate] in the preliminary round,” said Althinho.
By the looks of things Althinho has assembled a more experienced squad that includes a striker from the Portuguese First Division in Boavista’s Cafu and midfielder Sandro of Vitoria Setubal. Their star midfielder is Calo, who plys his trade in Qatar.
Bafana were boosted with the arrival of Dutch-based goalkeeper Hans Vonk who plays for Heerenveen. He jetted in on Wednesday afternoon. Leading striker Shaun Bartlett of English Premiership club Charlton Athletic is expected in the Free State capital on Thursday.
Said Vonk: ”It is great to be back in the Bafana squad. I look forward to fighting to get my place back. I am also looking forward to working again with the coach [Baxter] who impressed me when he held a camp in England recently.”
Vonk says that Baxter is highly regarded in Europe.
”I have a couple of Swedish teammates at Heerenveen and they have been telling me how good a coach Baxter is. But we need to beat Cape Verde and that is not going to be easy as they are totally unkown to us. But I am looking forward to the game and meeting my old teammates and the new ones on camp.”
Vonk was part of the 2002 World Cup squad that played in South Korea but the Dutch-based keeper was never given a game during the World Cup. Local based Andre Arendse was preferred by then-coach Jomo Sono. — Sapa