Legends urge Bafana to remain calm as world awaits opening game against Mexico

As all eyes will be on Bafana Bafana and World Cup co-hosts Mexico when the two sides get the global spectacle underway at the iconic Estadio Azteca in Mexico City tonight (9pm, SA time), we caught up with two Bafana legends — Mark Fish and Shaun Bartlett — for their views on the titanic opening clash.

Sowetan: What do Bafana need to do to beat Mexico?

Fish: The boys must just go out there and enjoy the occasion. It’s a World Cup opener, so you’ll have billions of people watching, but the players mustn’t put pressure on themselves. They must just play freely.

Bartlett: Bafana need to turn up. We’ve lost a few games leading up to this World Cup, and I don’t think we’ve been playing well of late. The intensity has been low in the past few games, but hopefully the occasion on its own will spur the players on.

Sowetan: Who should start up front?

Fish: One between [Lyle] Foster and [Iqraam] Rayners should start. I think coach Hugo Broos will start a player with more confidence between the two. Rayners was disappointed for being left out of the Afcon, I’m sure, and I believe he wants to prove a point. I really believe Broos and his technical team will make the right choice.

Bartlett: We don’t really have anyone who’s been prolific. Even Evidence [Makgopa] has won the league with Pirates, but he didn’t score a lot of goals. Lyle never really played as a striker at Burnley if you look at his games, and Rayners is the only SA striker that was scoring goals in the Betway Premiership last season. So, it’ll depend on the tactics the coach wants to employ...if he goes defensive, he’d probably need a target man like Lyle or Evidence, and he can always bring Iqraam in when things don’t go his way. But I think one between Evidence and Lyle will start.

Sowetan: Are you confident we’ve prepared well for this World Cup since we’ve not won in the past five friendly games?

Fish: I’m confident we’re as ready as can be. Yes, we failed to win our past few friendlies but results there didn’t matter.

Bartlett: I’m not particularly confident. I’m not sure if it’s the coach or Safa [who are to blame] that we didn’t have good preparations. We’ve gone to the World Cup with Broos, Helman Mkhalele and Grant Johnson as our technical team, [but] a three-member technical team is not enough. Nowadays, everything is specialised, so I think we needed to beef up the technical team.

Sowetan