Johannesburg — If Algeria are to have any chance of getting out of their 2010 FIFA World Cup Group C, they need a positive start in their opening encounter against Slovenia in Polokwane on Sunday.
The Desert Foxes have been fighting injuries in the build-up to the tournament, but coach Rabah Saadane, who also led the side at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, says the team are ready for their big kickoff after a 1-0 friendly win over the United Arab Emirates last week.
"It's a reassuring victory against a good UAE side,” Saadane says. “I think that the result doesn't matter much, but I'm happy with the physical performance of my players. They held on and that reassures me. We'll be ready against Slovenia."
The veteran coach pulled one major surprise ahead of the opener - he dropped skipper Yazid Mansouri for the game, and handed the captain's armband to Antar Yahia.
"For any player, it is always difficult to explain to him, to make him understand he's lost his place due to competition," Saadane says. "We must do it, even if it's painful."
Yahia, meanwhile, is relishing the opportunity to lead his side on the world stage.
"We've trained well and we can't wait for kickoff now," Yahia says. "The match is very important and to start the tournament well we must win it, it is a decisive fixture."
The midfielder does admit that Algeria's preparations have not been as smooth as they would have liked, mostly because they have brought in a whole new raft of French-born players who qualify for Algeria after a change in FIFA rules relating to the switching of nationalities.
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"That doesn't help preparations. It's also due to fatigue built up over these last years because of tournaments, summer play-offs and all the travelling,” he says.
"The body has sounded the alarm bell. Despite all that, we still managed to play some matches. Personally, I've played in the last seven or eight and that has allowed me to find my rhythm.
"We've worked well, we've played our warm-up games and from Sunday comes the truth of proper matches."
Slovenia will provide something of a challenge, though. They beat a very good Russian side in the playoffs to reach the finals.
Midfielder Aleksandar Radosavljevi says the players will use the tremendous excitement back home as an inspiration in the tournament. But he adds that the side are not getting ahead of themselves; with matches against England and the United States still to come, they are fully focused on the Algerians.
"We aren't thinking about USA or England at the moment, we just think about Algeria and we are confident that we can play well and with every game get better and better as the tournament progresses," he says.
"We know the whole of Slovenia is behind us so we don't feel pressure. We know many people will be cheering for us in South Africa and back home. We must play well to galvanise this support, but we are confident we will do so.
"We don't even think or talk about who will win the World Cup. It does not enter our minds how other teams will perform. We focus entirely on ourselves to give ourselves the best chance."
