Algeria set for England Clash FIFA 2010
The Algerians are determined and fully focused on the job at hand as they take on the mighty Englishmen in a crucial group C encounter on Friday 18th June of the football world cup.
The squad adopted a unique approach for motivating themselves ahead of the clash, as they all sat together and watched the film "Battle of Algiers", a graphic account of Algeria's bloody struggle for independence from French colonial rule.
Algeria has a violent history and the country was formed when granted independence from France in 1962.
Thousands laid their lives in the brutal Algerian war for independence, a conflict that has left deep scars in both countries.
The movie has spurred them on, and they are determined to fight till the very end against the 1966 champions, the feeling in the camp was summed up by 26 year old mid-fielder Hassan Yebda
"It's true we watched that film [The Battle of Algiers] last night, a good fifteen of us. It's a very moving moment. I've never actually seen it; a number of us hadn't seen it. It was a very moving thing. This is what we need to do to unify the group and make us stronger together,"
The Africans have had a bad start to their campaign in the tournament as they lost Group C opening game 1-0 to Slovenia.
But after the opening reversal they claim that they have the same determination to win as they had felt when they beat African champions Egypt in Sudan, in a tense match which secured their World Cup qualification.
"When we were in Sudan, we had an obsession to win and that's what enabled us to beat Egypt and qualify for the World Cup. If we were to lose the match, we would have been knocked out - the same goes for tomorrow, so we're more or less in the same situation about this. And I think we should go on to the pitch with the same obsession to win and I trust that will produce a positive result," Yebda added
When asked about their game plan against the mighty England team the coach of the team Rabah Saadane said: "I don't think we're going to play like the North Korea against Brazil, or perhaps like Switzerland against Spain. We're going to play differently because we're composed of different players. We play according to our own potential in our own system”.
Both teams are under pressure after the English team was held to a draw by United States in their opening match of the tournament.
Meanwhile England underwent their final training session in Cape Town, with their focus set on the clash.
In the draw against the United Sates goal scorer was Captain Steven Gerrard just four minutes into the match before goalkeeper Robert Green fumbled Clint Dempsey's tame shot to give the Americans a draw.
The English team would be relying heavily on striker Wayne Rooney, who has had a lean run lately and has not scored in an English shirt since October last year, however the 24 year old had a memorable run for Manchester United last season, and Gerrard is pinning his hopes n him.
"I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Wayne finds the back of the net. Everybody saw how great his form is again, Gerrard added that Rooney was in his book the best player in the world, and he remained pivotal to England’s chances at the biggest stage of international football.
On the other hand team coach Fabio Capello is yet to reveal his goal-keeping choices for the match, especially in the light of Green's error last week. The Italian has veteran David James and Joe Hart in his squad but he was not willing to reveal much before the Algeria match.
Capello concluded that his team would be revealed only at the start of the match.
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