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There is a feel-good factor in the Bafana Bafana camp as they prepare for their crucial World Cup group stage match against South Korea in Monterrey on Thursday (3am SA time).Bafana recovered from their awful 2-0 opening loss to Mexico at the Azteca Stadium by taking the game to physical Czechia for a 1-1 draw in Atlanta, and captain Ronwen Williams says that performance has done wonders for the team.With boosted confidence, Williams has called on his teammates to continue where they left off against Czechia, who they put under pressure during the closing stages when they were in the ascendency. Going into the last match of the group stages, South Africa must beat South Korea to have a chance of finishing second and advance automatically to the knockout stage. “It’s another big one. We have another opportunity, and that’s the beauty of football: there is always another game. We have the feel-good factor now, and we will be more positive going into the next game. “Hopefully we can carry on from the way we finished against Czechia.” It is not going to be easy against the determined South Koreans, who have ambitions of their own, as they have also not secured automatic progression to the next stage. A point may be enough for South Korea to get to four points, but they will be out for a win; they could still be overtaken by Czechia with a good win over Mexico, who have already qualified. It’s another big one. We have another opportunity, and that’s the beauty of football: there is always another game. We have the feel-good factor now, and we will be more positive going into the next game. — Bafana captain Ronwen Williams“We just have to believe that we can do it. The character and mentality in this team are amazing. Even during the qualifiers, when we dropped points and things were not going our way, we kept believing, and that carried us through,” said Williams. “There is genuine brotherhood among players, and that’s why when we have our backs to the wall, we can pull through. We know the spirit that is there in the camp and happiness and joy that we bring to each other. “There are a lot of bad moments in the camp, but we deal with those things. We have younger players in camp, and the good thing is that they are experiencing all these setbacks at a young age. “You can just imagine how they are going to be in a few years’ time.” Williams also reflected on the pressure the team was under after the Mexico loss. “I don’t want to experience silence and pain like I experienced after the loss to Mexico. You could see the disappointment in everyone’s eyes because we worked hard and sacrificed a lot to be here. “The most disappointing thing was losing the game and all the negative press and talk around us. It hurt even more that your own people are negative, but two days after that we were back. “The experience of the coach came through because he just left us for two days. He didn’t talk or anything, and on Sunday night we did our analysis, and he showed us what we could have done better. “From Monday you could see focus, and the spirit slowly came back, and we played against Czechia on Thursday.”Mexico play Czechia at the same time as the Bafana game on Thursday.
