ALGERIA are a football nation on their knees, striving to get back on their feet.
Humiliated once again at the Africa Cup of Nations, where they were eliminated in the first round – just as they were two years ago – the north African nation are now without representation in the CAF Champions League, after CR Belouizdad were knocked out.
They do at least have USM Alger still in line to defend their CAF Confederation Cup title, with the holders through to the quarter-final, where they will come up against Rivers United of Nigeria.
At national level, new coach Vladimir Petkovic is rebuilding the team, and had a promising start with a late winner in a 3-2 victory over Bolivia on Friday in the current Fifa Series.
There could be no better time for Bafana Bafana to put one over the Desert Foxes, whom they meet in Algiers tomorrow night (11pm kick-off, SA time).
But the South African team go into that match on the back of a disappointing 1-1 draw with Andorra on Thursday, although it has to be said that coach Hugo Broos fielded an experimental side in that match.
The silver-haired Belgian has no intention of being generous with caps tomorrow, and will be fielding his strongest team after being disappointed by those he gave a chance to last week.
“We need victories to keep our ranking. But what is more important is that in two months, we play Nigeria and Zimbabwe (in World Cup qualifiers), so no excuses any more, we have to do a good result. So, there will be a lot of changes,” Broos said.
“If you compare Andorra with Algeria, there’s lots of difference in quality.
“We need to put our best team on Tuesday. We cannot afford to experiment again.
“Also, players who did not play on Thursday will not be tired, and they will be fresh to play.”
The Bafana mentor knows, though, that they are going to have it tough against opposition keen to re-establish themselves as giants of continental football at least.
Bafana Bafana hard at work in Annaba, Algeria. The team travels back to Algiers later on Saturday ahead of the second FIFA Series match match against hosts Algeria on Tuesday pic.twitter.com/e5XtVdRiLD
“It will be a difficult game, certainly. We all know they have quality. There was disillusion and disappointment (in Algeria) to see this team out of the group stages at Afcon,” Broos said.
“I saw their game on Friday against Bolivia. The motivation was totally different.
“They have a new coach, and they want to show him that they deserve to be in the team and they want to play.
“So, motivation will be big (especially because) they play at home, and the stadium was nearly full. It will be a good test for us after Afcon.”
That test will be particularly hard for Bafana up front where Broos is lamenting the absence of his heavy hitters, with Elias Mokwana grabbing the equaliser against Andorra.
“There are three strikers not here – (Evidence) Makgopa, (Lebo) Mothiba and (Lyle) Foster. I hope all three will be ready in June because those games (World Cup qualifiers) are more important,” Broos said.
“We proved already that we can score, but last Thursday we had too many chances that we did not use.”
He believes scoring is a big South African problem of old.
“It is a problem for several years in South African football. We don’t have the big scorers.
“Even when there are those who score easy in the local competition, (Khanyisa) Mayo and Iqraam (Rayners), everybody knows that international games are one level or two higher than the PSL. It is not easy to score.”
It is international friendly matches such as the one Bafana will play against Algeria tomorrow, though, that will help the players learn how to move up to the higher notch.