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With 90 000 partisan vuvuzela-blowing fans cramming into Soweto’s magnificent Soccer City, the home nation is out to take a giant step towards the knock-out stages in a group also featuring former winners Morocco, and Angola.
Bafana Bafana’s build-up has hardly been the stuff of potential champions but they will be counting on huge home support to help lift them as it did when they won their only previous Nations Cup in 1996.
The momentum built by an opening success would prove invaluable — defeat or a lacklustre draw could knock the stuffing out of Gordon Igesund’s side.
Since going all the way 17 years ago, South Africa’s fate in the continental showpiece has plummeted — they haven’t won a match since 2004 and failed to qualify for last year’s competition in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in farcical circumstances.
South African players, coaches and officials did not understand the widely-used head-to-head rule and played for a draw at home to Sierra Leone, believing a point would suffice.
Bafana players danced and sang their way around the stadium, convinced they had succeeded, only to discover later that minnows Niger had pipped them at the post.
The time has come for the 2010 World Cup hosts to put some much needed pride back into the national game.
“With a little bit of luck and if we start scoring goals, I think we can go all the way,” Igesund, who won the South African Premiership with a record four clubs, said on Thursday.
“Hopefully, things go well for us and we get a bit of a roll going, especially with the support we are going to get behind us, 90 000 people in the stadium.
“It’s not an easy task. We’ve got to respect the teams around us. There are some very good teams here, but I think we’re very capable.”
South Africa’s players have shown sterling commitment to the cause by forgoing any cash bonuses until the knockout stages.
“The players will accept bonuses only if they get to the quarter-finals and again if they reach the final. There is no money in the first round nor the semi-finals,” the coach stressed.
“This shows a commitment to do well,” added Igesund, whose squad have been under media and public fire after a lacklustre build-up that finished with a drab 0-0 draw against Algeria in Soweto last weekend.
Not as though it puts too much pressure on them, but they have been tipped to do well by South African President Jacob Zuma.
“I certify that the team is ready,” the head of state said during a visit to a training session this week.
“I am more confident this time, more than any other times,” he added.
Igesund, meanwhile, admitted he had never seen Cape Verde play — if he had he would have found a team brimming with confidence after their shock defeat of Cameroon in the qualifiers.
If South Africa think Cape Verde will roll over like startled rabbits caught in the Cup spotlight they should just listen to Ryan Mendes.
“It’s our first time going to the Nations Cup, so there’s no pressure on us,” said the Lille striker.
“We’re lucky to be playing the opening game of this Nations Cup — for us that’s the ultimate!” he added.
“Aside from that, it’s true we want to achieve something because we don’t want to end up being ridiculed.”
Meanwhile, Cape Verde Islands coach Luis Antunes will have an advantage over his 15 rivals when the 2013 African Cup of Nations kicks off here today.
Anxious that his debutants do not suffer the same three-loss humiliation as Botswana and Niger in the previous edition last year, the 46-year-old air traffic controller sought the help of Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho.
The self-proclaimed “Special One” agreed that Antunes could spend one week shadowing him as he went about his work with superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo at one of the most famous football clubs in the world.
Mourinho, who has won league titles with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid, was impressed by the man who plotted the downfall of four-time champions Cameroon in a 2013 Africa Cup eliminator.
“Antunes is an intelligent coach. He has his own ideas, is well-organised, methodical and ambitious. He is a very good coach,” was the glowing Mourinho assessment of the Cape Verdean.
On a sabbatical from his air traffic controller post at Nelson Mandela airport on the island of Sal since 2010, Antunes played down local media comparisons with Mourinho and Brazilian World Cup winner Luis Felipe Scolari.
“They are two coaches who operate on quite a different level and can draw on a different realm of experience. The comparison simply is not justified, but I would give anything to be a Mourinho or Scolari,” he told reporters.
Antunes, who succeeded Portuguese Joao de Deus as coach after working with national age-limit squads, could hardly have asked for a tougher start at the premier African football competition.
South Africa in front of 90 000 hostile supporters, many blowing ear-piercing vuvuzelas (plastic horns) at Soccer City stadium in Soweto, is the task awaiting a Blue Sharks team skippered by veteran defender Nando today.
But Antunes is unperturbed and has set his ambitions far higher than damage limitation in Group A against 1996 winners South Africa, former champions Morocco, and Angola.
“We are dreaming of reaching the quarter-finals and then, who knows? We might even get to the semi-finals,” he says of a team containing two locals plus barely known footballers scattered across the leagues of Europe.
“It is very important to show Africa and the world a good image of the Cape Verde Islands so that people can see the amount of work we have done over the past few years.”
With a population of little more than 500 000 on 10 islands 600 kilometres off the Senegalese coast, Cape Verde is the smallest country to compete at the Cup of Nations.
But the progress of the Sharks has been remarkable with the team ranked 15 in Africa and 70 in the world by Fifa this week — higher than Morocco (17/74), Angola (19/78) and South Africa (22/85).
“Tactically speaking, we have made a lot of progress, we play well as a unit and we fight hard for each other. Everyone comes back to help out defensively,” boasted Netherlands-based defender Guy Ramos. — AFP.
Fixtures for 2013 African Cup of Nations in South Africa
Group A (Durban unless stated)
January 19 (today): At Johannesburg – South Africa v Cape Verde (6pm), Angola v Morocco (9pm).
January 23: South Africa v Angola (5pm), Morocco v Cape Verde (8pm).
January 27: South Africa v Morocco (7pm), At Port Elizabeth -Cape Verde v Angola (7pm).
Group B (Port Elizabeth unless stated)
January 20 (tomorrow): Ghana v Democratic Republic of Congo (5pm), Mali v Niger (8pm).
January 24: Ghana v Mali (5pm), Niger v DR Congo (8pm).
January 28: Ghana v Niger (7pm), At Durban – DR Congo v Mali (7pm).
Group C (Nelspruit unless stated)
January 21: Zambia v Ethiopia (5pm), Nigeria v Burkina Faso (8pm).
January 25: Zambia v Nigeria (5pm), Burkina Faso v Ethiopia (8pm).
January 29: Zambia v Burkina Faso (7pm), At Rustenburg -Ethiopia v Nigeria (7pm).
Group D (Rustenburg unless stated)
January 22: Ivory Coast v Togo (5pm), Tunisia v Algeria (8pm).
January 26: Ivory Coast v Tunisia (5pm), Algeria v Togo (8pm).
January 30: Ivory Coast v Algeria (7pm), At Nelspruit – Togo v Tunisia (7pm).
Quarter-finals
February 2: At Port Elizabeth – (1) Gp B winners v Gp A runners-up (5pm); At Durban – (2) Gp A winners v Gp B runners-up (8:30pm).
February 3: At Rustenburg – (3) Gp D winners v Gp C runners-up (5pm), At Nelspruit – (4) Gp C winners v Gp D runners-up (8:30pm).
Semi-finals
February 6: At Durban – Winners quarter-final 2 v winners quarter-final 3 (5pm), At Nelspruit – Winners quarter-final 4 v winners quarter-final 1 (8:30pm).
Third place
February 9: At Port Elizabeth – Semi-finals losers (8pm).
FINAL
February 10: At Johannesburg – Semi-finals winners (8pm).
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