Professor warns Angola

football team, told the country’s news agency, Angop, yester­day that it’s never an easy mission to erase a 1-3 first leg deficit.
Nicknamed Professor, Gonclaves is a popular figure in Angolan football after leading the national junior team to victory in the African Youth Cham­pionships, which earned him the pro­motion to take charge of the Palancas Negras.
The veteran coach, who led the Palancas Negras to their most success­ful period, challenged Ferrin to play an attacking game, revolving around Manucho and Djalma, the two Europe-based players who were rele­gated to the bench by the Uruguayan gaffer in Harare.
Gonclaves said it was important for Angola to get an early goal and, in pur­suit of that, it was key for Ferrin to put a lot of emphasis on attack, even if it meant sacrificing the team’s defensive capacity.
Sunday’s game against the Warriors, said Gonclaves, needed an Angolan team that will take risks and be adven­turous or their mission, to overhaul the deficit, which looks a tough one even before the game, could turn into an impossible assignment.
“I RECOGNISE THAT IT WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT TO RECOVER FROM A HANDICAP OF 1-3,” Gonclaves said in comments carried by Angop.
“But I believe that, given the lessons of the game’s first leg in Harare, the coach will set out a strategy for that Angola win and qualify for the African Cup of Nations in South Africa.
“We must push them in midfield and score goals.”
Gonclaves said he noted that while the Palancas Negras struggled in the first half in Harare, they improved sig­nificantly after the break, following the introduction of Manucho and Djalma.
Ferrin was last night set to name the 20 players who will remain in camp until Sunday.
Yesterday’s training sessions, accord­ing to the Jornal dos Desportos, con­centrated on the quick transition of the Palancas Negras attacks from defence to midfield into the final third.
Djalma, who scored the away goal in Harare that opened a very small win­dow of hope for the Angolans, denied there were problems in their camp related to the selection of the final squad to face the Warriors.
The forward, who is based in Turkey, also dismissed concerns that the Palan­cas Negras did not have the firepower needed to overhaul the deficit from the first leg deficit from Harare. “I think that there are no major problems in our finishing, as well as in our defen­sive sector,” said Djalma.
“What happens is that, sometimes, there is lack of concentration in a given game, in attack or defence, and this influence the outcome of the match.
“There are no secrets in football. If we are to fulfill our objectives, we have to score more goals than the opponent. At the moment, our thoughts are only in the qualification to the Cup of Nations and nothing more.”
Djalma said he was happy to be given another chance to play for his country but warned that their assign­ment could end either in happiness for the people or sadness for the whole nation. “Once again, I’m here in the national team and I can only feel good. There is a good chance for joy for all, which we can expect to gain from the game, or it could be very sad.
“I hope that we win the game. My goals are not more important than the other players, the important thing is we score as many goals as possible to over­haul the difference to help us qualify.”
Coach Ferrin revealed earlier this week that he was concerned about the poor conversion rate of the Palancas Negras and warned that the misfiring team could struggle to handle the pres­sure at the 11 November Stadium on Sunday.
“The finishing is a problem for Angolan football, it is a problem that has lasted for some time and it is the responsibility of the athletes we have selected to get that right,” said Ferrin.
Questions have, inevitably, been asked about the Uruguayan’s familiar­ity with his players, especially after he surprised many by handing Manucho and Djalma places on the bench in Harare only to see the Palancas Negras come into life once he had thrown them into the fold in the second half.
But analysts could also argue that Manucho and Djalma had the benefit of playing against a tiring defence, given they were both fresh when they came in, and it could be a different story if they are thrown into the fray from the opening whistle.
Being introduced when a team is already 0-3 down, with nothing to lose in a game that is being played on the road, is different from being thrown into a pressure cooker situation where a team has everything to lose as is now the case in Luanda.
The freedom that both Manucho and Djalma enjoyed in Harare won’t be there when they run onto the pitch in Luanda on Sunday with the heavy bur­den of an entire nation’s expectations weighing heavily on their shoulders.
The last time the Palancas Negras played a competitive match on home soil, during the 2014 World Cup quali­fiers in June, they could only draw 1-1 against Uganda.
Midfielder, Mateus Galiano, said he remains confident that they will qualify for the 2013 Nations Cup finals despite the tough hurdle that stands between them and a place in South Africa.
“We have worked for this (qualify­ing) and the group is brimming with this spirit,” said Galiano.
“We have the faith that we are going to give joy to all the people of Angola by qualifying.
“We are trying to correct what we did wrong in the game’s first leg and create conditions that will surprise the opponent. “We are aware that we will face a team which, perhaps, will come to try and close us down as much as they can. We are working on the tech­nical and tactical aspects to be more offensive, to find ways of scoring the goals, early goals, and to try and con­trol the game, I think that is the best way for us to qualify.”