13 June 2019 – Bafana Bafana first choice goalkeeper Darren Keet says his immediate goal is to cement his number one status between the posts and continue working hard for the good of the country.
Speaking after the team’s first training session in scorching Dubai where the Senior Men’s National team is preparing for the upcoming AFCON, the colourful keeper said he was relishing giving continuous great performances for the national team.
The agile goalkeeper was in outstanding form when Bafana Bafana sealed its spot at the forthcoming AFCON tournament in Egypt with countless outstanding saves in the match against Libya in Tunisia and he said given an opportunity would want to even better that day’s heroics.
“It was a good day and wonderful outcome (that day in Tunisia) but currently, I don’t have personal goals, my immediate personal goal is to cement my position as the country’s number one.
“Everyone wants to play and everyone wants to make that position their own and I am no different, I want to get into this squad and hopefully stake a claim for the starting position. I want to continue doing well whenever I get the opportunity,” he said.
“We have worked fantastically well in the past few weeks and months as a team and our goal is to do well in what we set out to achieve. But we still need to work hard and personally, I want to work harder so that I am in the starting line-up, come 24 June when we play Ivory Coast.”
Keet said going out and doing well would be wonderful for the country because they wanted to make everyone proud including their families and friends.
“We want to give our best in this coming AFCON tournament. We know what we are capable of and we know what we want to do and we will try to go out and do it. We don’t want to put too much expectations on what we can and can’t do but the ultimate goal is achieving something for the country,” he added.
“It is imperative that we do our best by putting all our plans into practice and that we work hard and maintain the form we had in the last few qualifiers,” he said adding that he didn’t want to put too much pressure on the team on how far it can go.
“I don’t want to predict how far we can go, I think it all comes down to every match as we play it and we have to be prepared for every game. The results will take care of themselves but we need to start with a good foundation,” he said adding that this team will give it a best shot.
“If we get it right, we will make the country proud. We have seen it with our clubs in the CAF Champions League competition that we have what it takes do well as South Africa.
“Our national team is no different. We have a very good squad with good spirit and good mentality. We are looking at pushing as far as we can and as hard as we can and see how it goes,” he concluded.