Furman disappointed with South African loss
South Africa captain Dean Furman expressed his disappointment after seeing the side lose their opening African Cup of Nations match on Monday.
Bafana Bafana took the lead against Algeria on Monday evening through Thuso Phala after a goaless first half, which had seen Furman come the closest to opening the scoring when he rattled the underside of the bar with a ferocious shot.
However, once Tokelo Rantie missed from the penalty spot to double their lead, the Algerians, who impressed at last summer’s World Cup, scored three goals in the last 24 minutes. Thulani Hlatshwayo put through his own net to level the scores, before Faouzi Ghoulam and Islam Slimani wrapped up the win.
Furman said: “We played against the tops over the last few years and we have to be able to compete, one of the things that maybe changed the game in their favour was when they moved to a 4-4-2. They went a little more direct, up to the two strikers upfront, I think that’s something we have to look at and maybe deal with a bit better, but I think overall we competed very well, some of the football we played was outstanding and as the coach said we were very disappointed not to come away with the win today.”
Commenting on Rante’s decision to take the penalty, Furman said: “TK (Rantie) picked up the ball, he’s our striker, he was confident, we had 100 percent confidence in him, he went for the top corner, sadly it hit the top of the bar and went away, and I’m sure if the next penalty arises, TK is a confident player and I’m sure he’ll be there with his hand up to take the next one.
“Listen, these things happen, we disappointed because that would have put us 2-0 up, into a very good position but it wasn’t to be and we have to keep our heads up, we maintain that we played very well tonight, just disappointed we didn’t react when they got their first goal back.”
South Africa next face Senegal on Friday, knowing they need to at least draw the game to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the next stage of the tournament.
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