SA coach hails Brazil tour

The camp, in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, started on Sunday, 7 March and ended on Saturday, 03 April with a practice match against Brazil club Santos based in Sao Paolo.

Within a month, Bafana Bafana played nine matches (this includes the friendly international against Paraguay) they won five of them, drew three and lost just once against Santos (2-1). In the process they have scored 17 goals and conceded four.

Parreira says the Brazil training camp was a worthwhile assignment for his technical team and the players.

It was a very positive outing, we learnt a lot during our time here. We played Brazil teams who helped us in our mission to get our team where we wanted it to be. We trained a lot, travelled a lot and played almost everywhere and that is good for mental strength. The important thing for me was to get the fitness levels up to World Cup standards, and to give the team some shape as well. I was also looking at the off the field behaviour, and I was impressed with the players they were focussed, disciplined and showed commitment to the course. So I am very satisfied with the overall outcome, the future looks good, Parreira told The Zimbabwean in Johannesburg at the end of the camp.

Bafana Bafana return to South Africa on Monday and a week later they fly out to Germany for the next training camp which will last just over two weeks.

Germany is the continuation of what we did here in Brazil. We have organised three games there, but we will first start with intensive training like we did when we got to Granja Comary in Teresopolis. I believe we have a team now all we need to do is strengthen what we have and we should be fine. I have noticed that since we arrived in Brazil, the confidence of the players on the ball has improved tremendously and now I am positive that with two camps left Germany and South Africa we can achieve more. The mental strength of the players is also high up, added the coach.

The coach has also said he will reduce his squad of 29 for the Germany camp, and on Thursday, 08 April, the squad for that camp will be announced.

Key midfielder Teko Modise hailed the tour.

It was a great success, playing nine matches in a month with some among us playing 90 minutes each time which shows growth. The experience we got here was unequalled. The coach wanted to make a team and that has been achieved even though we are still working on it. But he has an idea of which players he will use because the games have helped him a lot. I just hope what we got here we take to Germany and continue with the same mentality as players.