Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams echoes coach Hugo Broos’ sentiments in the seriousness of this afternoon’s international friendly match between South Africa and Zambia saying ‘ this is not a friendly game’.
Zambia and South Africa will lock horns on Saturday afternoon at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha at 15h00.
The Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper says the mood in the Bafana Bafana camp is high and says he is impressed with the intensity he saw in training from the players.
“First and foremost it’s lovely to come home to play in front of home fans but also play in front of passionate fans you know gave us so much joy and the guys are excited to be here. It’s been a wonderful week of hard work. You can see this is a team that means business training was.. the intensity was very high this week. It’s been a wonderful camp, there hasn’t been any issues everyone reported. There were no injuries so the mood it’s obviously very high but the players know there’s a job to do,” he said.
“There’s so much at stake you know for this game you know like the coaches mentioned before this is not a friendly game you know it’s another game it’s an international match and we’re obviously using it as preparation as well for AFCON.”
“Ourselves and what we’re building we’ve built a wonderful team over the last few years. So we focus on ourselves and if you have to see the intensity in training you can see how serious the guys will take this game tomorrow (today ). The intensity was so high the coaches were obviously very happy with that because you know we all could have come to camp and relax because you know it’s obviously a friendly match and we’ve qualified for the world cup. All the nice things but the intensity and the seriousness that I saw this week it’s amazing,” he added.
South Africa qualified for next year’s FIFA World Cup after beating Rwanda 3-0 in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, last month and Williams believes for them to stay amongst the best teams they have to take each game they play seriously.
“And that is what’s helped us over the last few years is to be serious. To be professional for each and every game because that is building blocks you know. Each and every step is important you know for where we want to reach and this is another match for us to climb that ladder. We are amongst the best now so we need to stay there and we treat each and every game seriously we train like that. Everything has been amazing, you know, in the camp. Even the new players who came in you know obviously settled in and they worked hard as well so we’re looking forward to the game and you will see fireworks tomorrow (today).” he said.
Williams wants the team to get a win this afternoon to put a smile on the faces of the fans and make them happy so that they can celebrate after the 90 minutes.
“So much joy to me and I know obviously what I mean to the community of the northern areas but not only that the community in the whole of You know, for me, it just gives me so much happiness to play in front of so many familiar faces, in front of my family, my loved ones. And obviously, I know what’s going on back home. So for 95 minutes, you know, we’ll put smiles on their faces and we all forget our problems for that moment. So it’s an amazing opportunity for me, but for the team as well. I know the team wants to play here. We had a wonderful atmosphere here last year and it’s one of the places that the players really wanted to come to. So I think it’s perfect for us to guard here tomorrow. With all the achievements we had, let us guard tomorrow, win the game and then celebrate, you know, what we are,” he said.
Meanwhile Chipolopolo skipper Lubambo Musonda says the Copper Bullets will give it their best against their neighbors and World Cup bound Bafana Bafana.
The Denmark based winger cum wingback believes the team wants to show that’s they are also able to compete.
“Oh yeah, I would say every game is a different game, like you said they played against Congo that was some time back and now they are meeting us and we also want to have good preparation for the upcoming and we are ready to give our best on the pitch and to show that we are able to compete as well,” Musonda said.
The Chipolopolo have dominated their meetings with South Africa losing just twice in the last ten meetings in all Competitions winning six.
