19 June 2019 – Bafana Bafana industrious midfielder, Dean Furman has opened up on the team’s AFCON preparations, adding that if this team applies what they have worked out on training in the past few weeks, something special might be in the offing.
Speaking upon arrival in the Egyptian capital of Cairo from Dubai, Furman said the spirt in the camp was sky high adding they have had good training sessions so far as AFCON preparations head into the home stretch.
“It is very good to be at our final destination in Egypt; we have waiting to be here for a long time. The pre-camp has been very good and going to Dubai has been good for us due to the heat factor. We got used to the heat and the good thing is that it is 10 degrees cooler here (in Egypt), so hopefully that issue (of acclimatisation) can be put to one side,” said Furman adding that the team need to just fine tune a few things and it is time to go.
“There is good spirit and the AFCON atmosphere is upon us. We were greatly welcomed on our arrival in Egypt and the excitement is starting to build among the players too,” he said.
On the match against Ghana last Saturday, Furman said the exercise was a good experience for the team as the West Africans were a top side on the continent whose top players play in some of the best leagues in Europe.
He said this Bafana Bafana team had taken a lot of positives but at the same time, there were also a lot of things to work on and improve.
“We have taken most of those learnings into our training sessions and hopefully when Ivory Coast comes, we are more than ready and confident,” he said adding that this Bafana Bafana side had what it takes to give as much as they can receive.
“We believe, this is a strong team and we are coming into this tournament with a lot of confidence based on our qualification campaign where we were undefeated and not forgetting our victory in Nigeria, our performance against them at home and our crucial victory against Libya away. All this give us a lot to be confident about.”
Furman said the first target is to get out of the group stages and thereafter, anything is possible.
“At the moment we are not looking past that,” he said brushing aside talk that this Bafana Bafana side was ranked among those teams that can go all the way.
“I don’t think we are favourites. There are certain traditional powerhouses of African football but we are happy with where we are, we know we have quality in this team. We are in a strong group involving Morocco and Ivory Coast and not discarding a strong Namibia side.
“So we are not concerned about what people say about the favourite tag, we just know that if we perform to our potential, we can achieve big things in this tournament.”
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