Bafana Bafana will try to use an Astroturf surface in Praia — which coach Stuart Baxter describes as "not the best" — to their advantage for a counterattacking game in their 2018 World Cup qualifier against Cape Verde. The national team travelled to the islands off the coast of West Africa aware that a win against Cape Verde at the Estadio Nacional de Cabo Verde on Friday and in Durban on Tuesday will leave Bafana in the driving seat to reach Russia 2018. Bafana were always going to play a counterattacking game in the away fixture. Baxter said the artificial surface might be conducive to it. "The surface is not one of the best Astroturf surfaces. But … when you play on it regularly as they do, you become … a shorter [passing] team. And players playing in Portugal will also play a shorter game. Not that they don’t play any long balls‚ but the game becomes shorter. "I don’t think it’s a great surface‚ so that could mean that there are big possibilities for us to produce some transitio...
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