Pretoria - South Africans should focus their energies on rallying behind Bafana Bafana and ignore the reported trouble in the French camp, says Soccer Laduma Editor Clint Roper.
Bafana are playing France in a must-win final World Cup A match in Mangaung, Bloemfontein this afternoon. The national squad need to beat the1998 world champions convincingly if they are to have any hope of progressing to the Round of 16.
"What we need to do now is believe in our national team; that they can do this for themselves because if we think the problems facing the French can work to South Africa's advantage - we are wrong," Roper said when asked if Bafana fans can read anything from the crisis that had crippled the French team following the expulsion of striker Nicolas Anelka on Sunday.
Following Anelka's sacking, the French team reportedly refused to take part in Sunday's training session, in solidarity with the player.
"The French are among the talented teams in this tournament and at any stage if they clique on Tuesday we could be in trouble. Sometimes incidents like these can bring the team together. What Parreira now needs is to focus on a new game plan. We can no longer afford to use one striker; he needs to sacrifice one of the defenders and bring someone at the front to assist Katlego Mphela".
Parreira has come under heavy criticism for insisting on one striker while strengthening defence even at the time when Bafana were 2-nil down in their recent match against Uruguay. They drew one-all against Mexico in the opening game. Mexico have three attacking forwards who are very pacey as most of the team's midfielders. Uruguay on the other hand is a physical team.
"We need a new game plan and we need to be honest with ourselves as South Africans. The French problems are not going to have any bearing on the game. If Parreira does not change our game plan, its time Bafana take advantage of their quickness because that is how we can score goals but then again Katlego Mphela alone is not coping. We also need someone who can create goals just like the way other teams are doing it," Roper said.
President Jacob Zuma, business leaders and several influential South Africans have this week declared their full support for the national team. Zuma urged South Africans not to lose hope even if the national team fails to progress to the second round of the tournament.
He said by hosting the tournament, the country was already a winner.
"South Africans are already winners. We won on 15 May 2004 when the announcement was made, declaring us as the hosts. The whole world is looking at us and applauding our success so far as hosts. And we have proven ourselves to be fantastic hosts," Zuma said.
Kick-off is at 16:00.
