The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have always targeted a place in the World Cup knockout rounds on their return to the finals \u200bfor the first time in 52 years but must beat Uzbekistan \u200cin Atlanta on Saturday to realise that dream.<\/p>\n
The DRC earned a deserved 1-1 draw, opens new tab with Portugal in their Group K opener, before a 1-0 loss to Colombia on Tuesday means they have \u200bwork to do against an Uzbekistan side who are not out \u200bof contention themselves.<\/p>\n
Following the defeat to the Colombians, the side are \u2060itching to get back on the park and make up for \u200bthat failure.
\n“We are in very good shape, we are waiting for the next \u200bgame. We want to play as soon as possible,” striker Simon Banza told Reuters\u00a0at their Houston training base on Thursday.<\/p>\n
He says they have respect for the Uzbeks, who \u200bare coached by Italian 2006 World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro.<\/p>\n
“They are a \u200bvery good team, I know some of the players from there. They never give \u200cup. \u2060But we are the same, it should be a very good game,” Banza said.<\/p>\n
The forward says the goal for the side remains the same, despite a difficult build-up to the tournament that saw them have to change their \u200bpreparation plans to \u200bsuit requirements to \u2060enter the United States due to the Ebola virus, opens new tab back home.<\/p>\n
“We have had a goal since we came to the \u200bWorld Cup and that is to go far in \u200bthe tournament,” \u2060Banza said.<\/p>\n
Coach Sebastien Desabre adds his side should not be downcast over the Colombia loss and keep confidence high for the Uzbek challenge.<\/p>\n
“We need to accept \u2060the \u200bloss, keep our heads high and get \u200bback into the fight quickly,” he said. “Uzbekistan will be difficult because they defend well, but we \u200bare going to give our all.”<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22138,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-38064","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The DRC earned a deserved 1-1 draw, opens new tab with Portugal in their Group K opener.","published_date":"","news_description":"The DRC earned a deserved 1-1 draw, opens new tab with Portugal in their Group K opener.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38065,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38064\/revisions\/38065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}