De Jong Hails Appollis’ Impact on Pirates’ Success

Orlando Pirates attacking midfielder Andre De Jong has heaped praise on teammate Oswin Appollis for playing an instrumental role in the team’s success. freshyourfeel.org

Appollis has enjoyed an impressive debut campaign with the Buccaneers, having scored 12 goals and registered nine assists in 43 appearances in all competitions.

He also played a crucial role in helping the Sea Robbers secure the treble as well as their first league title in 14 years.

De Jong believes Appollis’ technical quality and knack for producing match-winning contributions have been instrumental to the team’s success, with the Bafana Bafana international often taking responsibility and turning games in Pirates’ favour when it matters most.

“I think some of the goals he scored were from outside the box this season, I think the big thing about him is his backlift is minimal,” said De Jong on Extra Time on SuperSport as per IDiski Times.

“I think he can obviously strike a ball from basically a standing start as well.

“But yeah, his contribution to the team has been incredible. I think also in some big moments where he’s almost taken the team upon himself, taken it a bit between his teeth and turned the games for us.”

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Mauvaise nouvelle pour la sélection argentine. Appelé pour participer à la Coupe du monde 2026, Leonardo Balerdi aurait été victime d’une blessure importante lors d’un entraînement avec l’Albiceleste.

Le défenseur de l’Olympique de Marseille se serait blessé pendant la dernière séance précédant la rencontre amicale face au Honduras. Selon plusieurs médias argentins, son indisponibilité pourrait durer plusieurs semaines.

Une absence estimée à au moins un mois est évoquée, compromettant sérieusement sa participation au Mondial organisé aux États-Unis, au Mexique et au Canada. À 27 ans, Balerdi pourrait donc être contraint de renoncer à la compétition.

L’Argentine doit lancer sa Coupe du monde mercredi 17 juin face à l’Algérie (3h00). L’Autriche et la Jordanie figurent également dans le groupe de l’Albiceleste.

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Coach Thomas Tuchel on Friday said World Cup hopefuls England will not use scorching heat and vast travel distances between venues as excuses as they target a “long” tournament campaign.

England face New Zealand in a pre-tournament friendly in Tampa Bay, Florida, on Saturday, and have been preparing with training sessions in hot and humid West Palm Beach.

“We don’t want it to be an excuse. It will be tough. It will be hopefully a long World Cup,” Tuchel told a press conference.

“It will be a lot of travelling, it will be a lot of adversity from the heat, from humidity.”

Tuchel admitted he was “a little bit worried and concerned” by photographs of the recently relaid Tampa Bay grass pitch for Saturday’s friendly, but said poor conditions would likely not affect his team selection.

England plan to make 11 substitutions at half-time, he confirmed.

“Let’s decide when we are there. If there are any issues we can always react to it,” said Tuchel.

Hoping to end 60 years of hurt, England enter the tournament — co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada — among a group of favorites led by the likes of France, Spain and defending champions Argentina.

Following their New Zealand tune-up, and a friendly against Costa Rica in Orlando on Wednesday, England will head to their training camp in Kansas City, where temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees F) and thunderstorms are forecast in the coming days.

The Three Lions will kick off their tournament on June 17 against Croatia in Dallas, where the mercury is set to hit 35 degrees C (95F) next week.

If England progress beyond their group, they could face a testing trip to Mexico City for a high-altitude last-16 clash, with Miami a possible quarter-final venue too.

“That’s also the task for us, and that’s also what you want to achieve — that atmosphere where you stay calm, where we stay patient, and where we adapt to the circumstances,” said Tuchel.

“That’s just what it takes to go through the tournament.”

And despite the heat expected during the tournament, the manager made it clear that he would not abandon his hard-pressing tactical systems.

“There’s a value in recovering the ball high, even if it brings risk, even if it is highly intense,” said Tuchel.

– ‘Performed in finals’ –

England, who reached the final of the past two European Championships, are in Group L, which also contains Ghana, Panama and Croatia.

An experienced Croatia beat a young England side in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup.

This time, Tuchel said he was delighted by the amount of tournament-winning experience in his squad, which contains around a dozen players who won a trophy this year.

“We’re very, very happy that we have a lot of winners… it just lets your confidence grow in a genuine way, so it’s not artificial,” said Tuchel.

“Players know that they can handle the pressure. Players know that they performed in finals.”

The manager said he had a “clear idea of 14-15 starters that can start for us and should start for us and can carry this team” against Croatia.

Ezri Konsa is fighting for a starting role at center-back, along with the likes of Marc Guehi and John Stones.

Speaking before Tuchel at Friday’s press conference, Konsa admitted that “most of our players are not used to playing in this kind of heat.”

“But we’ve got to get used to it very quickly.”