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ZIWAPHI • VOL 4 NO 14 • 25 June - 8 July 2010

The decision by Chile to set-up their camp in Mpumalanga seems to have paid of, and the Chile coach acknowledged the support that he got from the people of the province.

“The support will always enhance performance. It is difficult to quantify it, but it is important to feel recognised,” said Chile’s Argentinian coach Marcelo Bielsa.

Chile won a hotly contested match by beating Hondurus 1-0 in Mbombela’s opening match on June 16.

Mbombelans gave the Chile team a passionate welcome from the locals when they landed on our shores to set up camp in White River.

The support continued into the field of play and helped spur Chile when the two teams contested for the all-valuable three points. While Hondurus had more creative players, it was the Chileans who dominated in terms of ball possession (57%) and opportunities, 27 shots on goals against Hondurus’ 9.

It came as no surprise when Chile’s forward, Jean Beausejour, scored the only goal of the match on the 34th minute, and went on to win the Man of The Match prize. At the time of going to press, Chile was at the helm of Group H after collecting another valuable three points when they defeated Sweden by the same margin.

Chile will be facing their toughest test tonight when they play number 2 ranked Spain. Spain was toppled by Brazil from the number one spot when FIFA released its March 2010 rankings.

Chile’s coach, however, seemed confident of his charges in a post match interview.

“The team was very good in the attack and our attack was very well coordinated. We had many good passes and we had a number of situations where we could score sufficiently,” said Bielsa.