'Just try to beat us'

Claude le Roy's Congo-Brazzaville team arrived in Bata, the largest city in Equatorial Guinea, this week to find that some of his backroom staff could have slept at the airport had they not acted quickly to find accommodation.

Sadly, that was their scene-setter at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament, which kicks off tomorrow.

Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba has, however, not complained too much about logistics ahead of his team's opening match - against Algeria - on Monday.

His unbeaten record, which is running into double figures after thrashing Mali 3-0 in a friendly on Wednesday, has helped keep him away from discussing the complexity of settling in at the tournament.

"We're comfortable," said Mashaba, who has now gone 10 games without defeat since taking over the job in July. "I think in this entire tournament, we're the team to beat. When we started our journey, no one gave us a chance to say we can win this cup. People are now starting to raise their eyebrows and are wondering how good we are."

There's no chance of Bafana breezing through the tournament, though, after being drawn against Algeria, Senegal and Ghana in the Group of Death.

Mashaba waited until a convincing performance against Mali to wax lyrical about Bafana's chances at the tournament. He had been concerned about his players' fitness and their finishing in the two friendly matches before the midweek result.

When Bafana left it late to beat 2012 champions Zambia, the coach was critical.

He then praised their improved performance against tournament favourites Cameroon in a come-from-behind 1-1 draw at the weekend, singling out their grit and character to recover against such a physical team.

"And look at Mali," Mashaba said. "They have a bunch of excellent players, with just about every single one of them based in Europe. But what I like was that my players made it look simple. I've always said to them that if we stick to the game plan we can win the championship.

"Our group also has three different approaches. So these games have helped us in that regard - not always focusing on one dimension until you are paralysed. I'm happy we're even using set plays, which are already half chances if they are around the box, to score goals."

Mashaba also confirmed he would not have a permanent captain during the tournament and plans to continue to rotate the armband. Anele Ngcongca, Dean Furman and Andile Jali have all captained Bafana during the three friendlies and impressed with their leadership.