CAR twice came from a goal down to beat Egypt in a 2013 Nations Cup qualifier in June. Most remarkably the game was played away from home and they played for 60 minutes with 10 men.
It is that kind of fortitude that Igesund says will make it difficult for his side to create chances and why he has selected what he terms a “very offensive” team.
“I have watched a lot of them. Egypt tried to go through the middle against them, but they were organised and disciplined, even with 10 men,” Igesund told reporters on Thursday.
“We will use width, we are playing on the bigger Cape Town Stadium pitch for that very reason. We want to stretch them and use our attacking fullbacks to get forward.”
Igesund said that he is very happy with the state of the Cape Town Stadium pitch, which had received heavy criticism when it was last used in a game – Ajax Cape Town’s Nedbank Cup loss to Mamelodi Sundowns on February 22.
“I watched that match on TV and when I saw the state of the pitch I phoned the stadium management team the next moment and expressed my concerns. They gave me assurances that the pitch would be perfect for the CAR game and they have done exceptionally well, they kept their word.”
Meanwhile, reports coming out of that troubled country is that the team might even not honour their fixture against Bafana Bafana in Cape Town on Saturday night due to internecine war between government troops and rebels in that country.
It is alleged that Seleka – a formation of five dissident rebel movement groups fighting the government of President François Bozize, have literally violated the terms of a ceasefire signed with the government in Libreville during January and have seized the south eastern town of Bangassou.
The South African national football team Bafana Bafana would do well not to concentrate on the political conflict raging on in Bangui.
