Parreira wary of ‘daring’ Mexico

CARLOS ALBERTO PARREIRA has warned his South Africa side of the threat posed by what he describes as “the most daring team” at the World Cup ahead of their showdown with Mexico at Soccer City today.

The two countries kick off the 19th edition of the finals, and first ever on the African continent, in Johannesburg with plenty of expectation on the host nation.

Never in the history of the World Cup has a home team failed to qualify for the second round, with Bafana Bafana, the second-lowest ranked nation in the 2010 tournament behind North Korea, desperate to maintain that trend.

Although confident, Brazilian coach Parreira expects a difficult opening against Javier Aguirre’s men in front of an expected 85,000 crowd.

“Tomorrow, as much as the pressure is big, it’s a World Cup game, it’s sort of a war,” he said.

“Opening games are always difficult, there is lots of pressure, the whole country is involved and you are playing under the eyes of the world.

“I know it’s not easy to enjoy the game when you play a team as good as Mexico. They are the most daring team in this World Cup, the way they approach the game.”

But the 1994 World Cup-winning coach – he led Brazil to glory that year – is not afraid of the task.

He continued: “We respect them, but we are not afraid.

“They have their way, we have ours and the good thing about Bafana Bafana now is this team has an identity, they are confident and they want to deliver.”

Parreira added: “In this country football has been sleeping for many years, then suddenly there was a ray of hope with a good performance of the team, the good preparation, the World Cup coming here for the first time and then we had to understand the feelings of the people.

“It’s important that this will not contaminate us, in a good sense that is, because we like what we saw. Of course you have to like this kind of support.”

Parreira, who heads into the game with his 12-match unbeaten run intact, also revealed he will field an unchanged line-up from the one that took on Denmark in their last warm-up match.

It means that Tsepo Masilela, widely expected to start, loses out to Lucas Thwala at left-back, while Steven Pienaar will lead a five-man midfield with Katlego Mphela playing as a lone striker.

Meanwhile, Javier Aguirre’s Mexico are dreaming of puncturing South Africa’s party.

“My team has come here to play football, not make friends and do some sightseeing,” Aguirre said. “I don’t think the team with more friends in the stadium will win the match.”

“I’ve also played one (a World Cup) at home so I know exactly what it feels like. I think it’s going to be a beautiful party and we’re happy to be here. We want to play well and win the match.”

Arsenal striker Carlos Vela agrees that Mexico won’t fear anybody. “I know that it will be difficult and tricky to win it but we can dream and we can think about winning it,” he told Arsenal TV.