Le sélectionneur brésilien de l`Afrique du Sud, Carlos Alberto Parreira, a affirmé samedi que sa "jeune" équipe ne devait pas "avoir peur" de son prochain adversaire, la Tunisie, pour son
deuxième match du premier tour de la CAN-2008 (groupe D).
Le champion du monde 1994 ne s`affolle pas après le nul concédé d`entrée face à l`Angola et affiche sa confiance, se disant persuadé que son groupe ira "en s`amaliorant" lors du tournoi.

Revue de la presse étrangère

ساعة الحقيقة تدق امام تونس

Arab Online

CAN-2008 - Tunisie-Afrique du Sud: l`heure du rachat

(Abidjan News)

La Tunisie et l'Afrique du Sud, auteurs de débuts décevants dans la CAN-2008, doivent absolument se reprendre dès dimanche à Tamale pour rester dans la course à la qualification pour les quarts de finale, dans un groupe D très serré.
Une défaite ne serait pas nécessairement synonyme d'élimination tant les forces semblent homogènes, dans une poule qui a accouché de deux matches nuls lors de sa première journée. Mais le temps presse pour les deux nations.
La Tunisie, venue au Ghana avec certaines ambitions, est certainement l'équipe qui le plus à perdre dans cette confrontation. Les troupes de Roger Lemerre savent bien que sans un exploit de Traoui, un missile de 35 mètres en toute fin de rencontre (83e), elles seraient reparties bredouilles contre un Sénégal aux individualités bien plus impressionnantes (2-2).
"Il y a une obligation de résultat", reconnaît le technicien français, qui pointe cependant quelques motifs de satisfaction et d'espoir, notamment le "mental du groupe."
"C'était important de revenir après avoir été menés au score (contre le Sénégal), explique-t-il. J'aurais été plus inquiet si, collectivement, on n'avait pas réussi à résister aux talents sénégalais."

Des Bafana Bafana sereins
Contre des Sud-Africains au profil technique similaire à celui des Lions de la Teranga et "bien structurés" de son propre aveu, Lemerre attend ce trait de génie qui pourrait débloquer une rencontre... comme la frappe soudaine de Traoui mercredi.
Les regards se braquent alors forcément sur Chikaoui, le plus fin technicien des Aigles de Carthage, mais guère à son avantage contre le Sénégal.
"Il ne compte pas plus que les autres mais s'il peut faire une étincelle, on sera preneurs", avoue Lemerre.
Les Bafana Bafana, en plein apprentissage, avancent vers ce match avec plus de sérénité et sans une réelle obligation de résultat, cette CAN n'étant que la première étape sur la longue route qui mène au Mondial-2010 organisé dans leur pays.
Si le jeune groupe que tente de bâtir Carlos Alberto Parreira est encore perfectible, comme l'a montré sa mise en route délicate face à l'Angola (1-1), le Brésilien, champion du monde en 1994, tente, petit à petit, d'inculquer son expérience à des joueurs qui, pour la plupart, participent pour la première fois à une grande compétition internationale. Avec un credo, évacuer "la peur"
de leurs têtes.
"On a montré un certain état d'esprit contre l'Angola, explique le capitaine Aaron Mokoena, l'un des guides de cette équipe avec l'attaquant de
32 ans, Sibusiso Zuma. Je ne pense pas à la défaite. Nous ne sommes pas là pour cela. Ce sera dur mais nous allons tout faire pour rendre la vie difficile aux Tunisiens."
La leçon du Professeur Parreira commence semble-t-il à être assimilé par ses studieux élèves.

Bafana now alive with possibility

(independent Afrique du Sud)
Nasief Morris is not known to making bold predictions. On Thursday though, the Bafana Bafana centre back deviated from the norm and declared himself and his teammates capable of winning the African Cup of Nations.

"We can beat any team in this tournament," he says without flinching.

It's the morning after the "glorious" night before and it is easy to assume the soft-spoken centre back is still dizzy from the excitement of that stunning equaliser by Elrio van Heerden which helped Bafana get a monkey off their backs.

After all, the 1-1 draw with Angola has ensured the class of 2008 will have a better tournament than those who went to Egypt in 2006 no matter the outcome of the next two matches.

And Morris, having been strangely left out of the squad for the last tournament by Ted Dumitru, must have good reason to be pleased with Wednesday's result.

That though is not the reason for his positive outlook on the remainder of the tournament.

"We played very well against Angola. And I have no doubt if we can play at least 70 minutes of the next matches in a similar way as we did the first and last 20 minutes of that match, we can beat any team here."

That they could not sustain their good performance for the duration of the match, says Morris, is because "it's not possible to play and dominate for 90 minutes".

He does, however, believe Bafana will be the better team against Tunisia on Sunday (kick-off 9.30pm, SA time).

"We saw a bit of their game and later watched the rebroadcast on TV and I am convinced we will beat them. The key now is just for us to make sure we convert all the chances we create.

I think our problem is that we sometimes lose concentration and that's why we don't score as much as our performance deserves. But we will correct that."

They had better. Although that might be difficult as this is a failing that has characterised their game.

One way to do that would no doubt be for Carlos Alberto Parreira to make a change to the starting line-up. Including Tera Fanteni in the place of Surprise Moriri will give Bafana more oomph up front, as it did when the burly striker took to the field on Wednesday.

With the Maccabi Haifa striker on the pitch, Sibusiso Zuma had immediate back-up whenever he received the ball with his back to goal.

Fanteni enjoyed his Nations Cup debut and is keen for another run especially a start.

"Obviously, I'm hoping I did enough to impress the coach and that I start in the next match," Fanteni says, quickly justifying why he feels the way he does.

"I thought we put more pressure on them in the second half. We did not let them play in their own half. But their goalkeeper did well to save them."

Angola's other saviour, according to Morris, was the referee.

"We were unlucky with that free-kick goal because I felt there was nothing wrong with it for the referee to disallow it."

And he was not dizzy. Most agree that Bafana were a bit hard done by that decision.

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Victory on Sunday will ease the Nations Cup pressure on South Africa

(Times – Afrique du Sud)

Carlos says Bafana can tame Tunisians
Carlos Alberto Parreira was so happy on Wednesday night after his Bafana team drew 1-1 with Angola in the Africa Cup of Nations that the coach confidently declared himself certain of victory on Sunday against Tunisia.
The Brazilian, who is usually tense and hostile after a game, allowed himself a little smile. His players had show character and had not given up when the chips were down. Instead they had made the country proud and showed the promise of a possible surprise in the first round of the tournament.
“We are going to do it against Tunisia. We are going to beat them,” said Parreira. “There’s a very good spirit … the process of building takes time. I said it before, our group is the toughest. All the teams have one point and any of the four teams can be first and second and can qualify.”
All four team in Group D have represented Africa at the World Cup. South Africa were there in 1998 and in 2002 as were Senegal. Tunisia and Angola were at the last World Cup in 2006 in Germany. There are no whipping boys who will donate points in this group.
“The way we refused to die and fought back to get the point was magnificent,” said Bafana captain Aaron Mokoena.
“The lads are a credit to Bafana Bafana. It’s a new spirit in this team and we will not be rolled over easily. We showed that we have character and are willing to fight to the last minute. I had hoped to start the campaign with a win but I am not complaining with a draw because anything is possible.”
With super-sub Elrio van Heerden giving a top performance, Parreira has no choice but to reshuffle his starting line-up.
Siphiwe Tshabalala must make way for Van Heerden, the Club Brugge KV winger.
The defence was a little rickety but the experience of Mokoena, who shielded the back four, was evident.
Mokoena worked hard on the night and covered the erratic central defender Benson Mhlongo with aplomb.
Tunisia, who were held to a 2-2 by Senegal, did not look too threatening. In fact, they looked interested in other things rather than the match. Hence Parreira is fancying his chances against the 2004 African champions.
“Our strength is ball possession. If we have the ball on the ground we have lots of advantage and we can go. We created problems for Angola when we were passing the ball around, we want to do the same against Tunisia on Sunday,” Parreira added.
A win over Tunisia will ease the pressure on the South Africans who are giving a much improved performance compared with the last tournament in Egypt where they failed to score a single goal and lost all three matches.