Khune sets to deny ‘very tall, big and slow’ Eagles
Bafana Bafana goal keeper Itumeleng Khune knows exactly what he and his teammates must do to beat the Super Eagles at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The Kaizer Chiefs’ goalie who is one of the two goalkeepers yet to concede a goal at the AFCON qualifiers having kept four clean sheets in four games eyes yet another clean sheet.
Khune will have to play his A game if he were to deny the Super Eagles side who has been promised $25,000 for each goal scored against the South African goalie who is eyeing his 39th clean sheet in his 91st international games.
“It’s a good record for us as a team, having kept four clean sheets in four games, but we’ve been working hard as a team and been encouraging all the departments to play their part and do well for the team,” Khune told kickoff.com
“We’re still unbeaten, we still haven’t conceded a single goal, we’ve scored the greatest number of goals [in the group], so those are the things we [take confidence from].
“But we keep telling ourselves that we must keep our feet firmly on the ground and keep grinding for more [solid performances].
The experienced goalie also highlighted what his side must do to beat the Super Eagles who he called very tall, big and very slow players.
“We obviously have to prepare mentally, physically and emotionally because we know how tough it is to play against West African countries.”
“They are going to want to bully us, so the only advantage we have is that we have players with small frames but are much faster on the ball,” he added.
“They are very tall and big, and very slow. So what we need to capitalise on is moving the ball around quickly and getting into small pockets of space, and even utilising the spaces behind their defence and then converting our chances.”
By: Tope Adefala
