Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – Dean Furman, the goal scorer in Bafana Bafana’s 1-1 draw against Burkina Faso at the Stade du 4 Aout on Saturday night, has described the national team’s remaining five World Cup qualifiers as “cup finals”.
He believes Bafana are not necessarily on the backfoot following a stalemate in their opening match on their road to Russia in less than two years’ time even though the other clash in Group D finished with Senegal beating Cape Verde 2-0 in Dakar to take top spot.
Bafana host Senegal on November 12 at the Peter Mokaba Stadium, and Furman, whose 80th minute strike here was cancelled out by Banou Diawara in referee’s optional time, wants to see South Africa stamp their authority in their own backyard to stand a good chance of being the outright winners in Group D and book their ticket to the World Cup. That is the only way to participate in the global football showpiece as one of Africa’s five national teams.
“This was an important point,” said Furman after the match. “Hopefully it can set us off, and we know that they (Burkina Faso) are beatable, especially since they are coming to our backyard next. There is a long way to go and we are certainly not on the backfoot because of the other (Group D) result. We have beaten Senegal before in the Nelson Mandela Challenge last year. I think we have got five cup finals left. We want to go to the World Cup and we hope on home soil the fans get behind us because this is hugely important to us as players. We also know the significance of getting to the World Cup for the country.”
In describing his goal, Furman said: “I don’t get many. This was my third, I think. I noticed that no one was really paying much attention to me and I thought when the ball breaks I was going to make a run for it. But it’s a difficult one to enjoy because we didn’t get the three points.”
Bafana’s remaining 2018 World Cup qualifiers
November 12, 2016 vs Senegal, Peter Mokaba Stadium
August 28, 2017 vs Cape Verde (away)
September 2, 2017 vs Cape Verde (home, venue yet to be confirmed)
October 2, 2017 vs Burkina Faso (home, venue yet to be confirmed)
November 6, 2017 vs Senegal (away)
@superjourno