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PREPARING SOUTH AFRICA FOR THE WORLD |
Bafana captain Aaron Mokoena made his debut for Blackburn Rovers in 2005 and became a regular in the starting line-up. He recently joined Portsmouth to preserve his dream of captaining South Africa at the 2010 World Cup. 'Mbazo' or 'The Axe', as he is known, is the youngest ever player to have represented his country, having played in 1999 for the 2000 Summer Olympics qualifiers, and proceeding to make a worthy replacement for Lucas Radebe as captain. Ahead of the friendly international against Serbia, Mokoena spoke to Project 2010 about his hopes and aspirations for the 2010 World Cup...  After a string of mediocre performances and average results, South Africa seemed to be firing on all cylinders at the recent Confederations Cup. What do you attribute this to? The biggest issue is that we were able to spend a great deal of time together for the first time in a long time. That played a major part…it brought the players together and I think that showed on the field. Although your team held its own against some of the strongest teams in the world, there were concerns about the number of goals scored. What is your take on this? At the end of the day, it's all about scoring goals, and we are very aware of this problem. But we are building for 2010 and these are areas we are working on. At the same time, our defence and midfield has been performing well. We managed to defend fantastically but we have to score goals. We are all concerned about this problem. You've been representing South Africa for several years now. How do you compare the mood in the camp now compared to previous years? Obviously every year is different with different staff and when you have a situation when the coaches not the same…the managers are not the same it have permanent structures in place. Again, that showed at the Confed Cup where the coaching staff played a massive role. So, yes, the situation is better. In 2002 we saw World Cup co-host South Korea reaching the semi-finals of the tournament and in 2006 Germany also had an incredible tournament, reaching the semi-finals. With home ground advantage, can we look forward to a miracle in 2010 - maybe Bafana reaching the quarter finals? Anything can happen in football. As you say, who would have predicted that South Korea would do so well? Not even the Koreans themselves. We are aware of the importance of home ground advantage. We are also aware that we are not only representing South Africa, but the rest of the African continent as well. We are carrying the flag for an entire continent, so it's important that we perform. We have a mountain to climb, but we can do it. more interviews...
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