New coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said on Friday that turning around the struggling national team of 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa would be his lasting legacy.
"I am here because of the privilege and honour of leading the host nation to the World Cup. This will go to my records, its priceless and I am looking forward to this," he told a packed media conference here.
Parreira ended his first spell as a moderately successful coach of South Africa in mid-2008 to be with his ill wife in Rio de Janeiro and was reappointed two weeks ago.
The 66-year-old Brazilian who has also coached Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia at the World Cup will hand over Bafana Bafana (The Boys) to a local coach after the June 11 to July 11 tournament.
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Addressing South Africa-based media for the first time since his reappointment, Parreira spelt out his plan to turn around a national team ranked 85 in the world last month by FIFA.
"If I thought that this team will not have a chance to go to the next round or do well in the World Cup, why would I come here to expose myself? No way," he stressed.
He said his first task would be to rebuild confidence among players demoralised by a string of losses since finishing fourth in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, and get them fit.
"The best way to built up lost confidence is to get a winning mentality and to do that we have to start winning games.
"We have two friendly matches this month against Japan and Jamaica that are crucial to start the process of getting our confidence back."
Parreira said he believed three months was enough to prepare the squad ahead of the first World Cup to be staged in Africa.
He said he would take Bafana to Brazil for a one-month training camp in March and they would play at least 10 friendly matches there.
"The camp in Brazil will do wonders for the players' confidence and they will learn a lot by playing against top Brazilian sides while we are in camp," he said.
Parreira recommended compatriot Joel Santana to replace him last year despite no national team experience and he was fired after Bafana lost eight of the last nine games.
He said Santana was harshly judged by the impatient South African media and fans.
"I would appoint him again, he is a good coach. I know in football we want to see results but if we look back who we lost against, the experience was a learning curve which will be beneficial in the long term," he said.
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