South Africa 2010: Parreira takes Bafana Bafana home to Brazil

FIFA 2010 World Cup hosts, South Africa, have taken a squad of 29 predominantly local-based players on a month-long tour of Brazil to prepare them for the June tournament.

Ranked 81st in the world, Bafana Bafana are considered to be one of the weakest among Africa’s six representatives for the world’s biggest soccer showpiece, which begins on June 11.

In a bid to achieve his difficult contractual task of taking the hosts to their first ever appearance in the second round, Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira decided to take the Bafana players to a tour of his native country, where he hopes to instil soccer basics and add some Brazilian flare into their style of play.

As most European leagues have reached their home straight, Parreira named only two foreign-based players into his provisional squad on Thursday, barely 24 hours after he had seen his charges grind to a disappointing 1-1 draw with lowly Namibia at Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium.

According to The Zimbabwean, Bafana will camp in Brazil – playing friendly matches against some of that country’s top sides, for close to a month, after which they will hold another training camp in Germany early next month.

“I do not want to be disrespectful to small sides, but we badly need to play big sides like Denmark and Argentina to gauge our progress,” said Parreira late last week. “After Brazil and the camp in Germany, we will have a stronger base, be fitter and much better prepared than we were against Namibia where I had one day to work with the squad.”

After play four training games against Brazilian club sides, Bafana will meet Paraguay, whom they beat 3-0 on home soil in 2008.

The Brazilian, who won the 1994 World Cup and reached the 2002 quarterfinals while still coaching Brazil, is optimistic of realising an improved performance from the South Africans after the tour.

“The camp in Brazil was not easy to organise, but it will lay the foundation for our World Cup preparations,” he said. “I did the same with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the past and the camps were all successful.” “You cannot walk into a supermarket and buy experience. This is the only way — going to Brazil and Germany and learning.” Parreira said his philosophy was simple: “I want Bafana to learn to play it simple. We need to give a face and identity to South African soccer.”

Drawn in Group A, Bafana open the World Cup with a tough game against Mexico at the Soccer City stadium, in Johannesburg on June 11. They will also have to go past Uruguay and France before they progress to the second round.