The retired defender insists Bafana still have a chance in the continental showpiece despite losing to the Elephants
\nFormer Bafana Bafana defender Andrew Rabutla remains confident the 1996 African champions will bounce back from their loss to Cote d\u2019Ivoire in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, if you can check in the history of Bafana against Ivory Coast you will find out that we never struggle against them,\u201d Rabutla told Goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expected a win against them or at least a draw to remain confident going to the next match. I don\u2019t know what happened with us because we looked nervous from the first whistle,\u201d he reacted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey looked threatening in the first half and we managed to contain them but we failed to close the boy [Jonathan Kodjia] that scored. I think our back four was disorganised,\u201d said the legend.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll in all, a draw would have been a fair result for us but let\u2019s hope the guys will be back against Namibia and improve their display. The loss means we are under pressure now because this is a big tournament and opening with a loss is not a good start,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the second game against the Brave Warriors ( Namibia ), who opened their competition with a defeat to the Atlas Lions of Morocco, the former centre-back said Bafana must play their hearts out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey must show hunger that they want a win against Namibia. We can win that one and ensure we also beat Morocco. These are the teams we beat in 1998, I remember David Nyathi scoring and Benni (McCarthy) also scoring,\u201d continued Rabutla.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to improve our confidence and forget about respecting our opponents. I think the boys must look at the 1998 tournament and find inspiration, we played the same teams and they can make it,\u201d he backed.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the former Jomo Cosmos defender said there was nothing wrong with the coach\u2019s tactics or selections because that approach brought a good result against Nigeria in the qualifiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you can look at his style of coaching, Stuart [Baxter] has tried that line-up before and I think he believed it would work for him,\u201d said the former Bafana defender.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good, but the boys didn\u2019t perform on the day. He used that line-up and tactics to unsettle Nigeria and it worked,\u201d he reflected.<\/p>\n
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\n\u201cI think the back four must just improve and communicate better because all is not lost, they can still beat Namibia and Morocco and reach the next stage,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Bafana will look to register their first win against Namibia who lost 1-0 to Morocco on Friday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The retired defender insists Bafana still have a chance in the continental showpiece despite losing to the Elephants Former Bafana Bafana defender Andrew Rabutla remains confident the 1996 African champions will bounce back from their loss to Cote d\u2019Ivoire in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament. \u201cLook, if you can check in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":11975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[468,116,122,348],"class_list":["post-11972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-afcon","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-tournament"],"yoast_head":"\n