We will trouble Cote d’Ivoire - Ibenge

The coach of the DR Congo talks without mincing words about the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, the progress his team has made, his double position as coach of national team and club side, AS Vita which offers him the opportunity to qualify for a second continental final in less than three months.

Cafonline.com: What is your approach against Cote d’Ivoire for this semi-final? An approach that counters the notables that this team has, such as in the defence, or you want to focus on the team as a whole?

Florent Ibenge: This is going to be a difficult opponent. It is a side we know well; we played with them twice in the qualifiers. Gervinho is the back bone. There is Wilfried Bony, Yaya Touré and Max Gradel. They have somewhat strengthened their defence with the return of Kolo Touré. We shall be ourselves. We will do what we can do best. Since the competition started we are improving. We will try to set out our game, despite all these notables before us. Within two days we will work on how to face Cote d’Ivoire offensively and defensively. What is important is to leave the playground without regrets. No matter the play style we will put up. What I want is that the players should come out smiling.

You talked of the double confrontation with Cote d’Ivoire in the qualifiers, with the return leg match in Abidjan where your team sometimes played wonderfully at the counterattack by banking on the speed of your attackers. Are you working on the same strategy, to take maximum advantage of counter opportunities that could crop up, considering that the Ivorian defence is not fast enough?

That is an asset we intend to improve on. But I must let you know that I was not very happy with our results of the match in Abidjan, because we took in three goals, despite that we won 4-3. We should be capable of defending properly, something we didn’t do on that day. Defence begins with the attackers. They have to be able to do this defensive task. Such that they could be somehow tired to offensively reproduce all those actions. But we cannot construct a house without a solid base.

Your defence was equally not very reassuring during the quarter final match against Congo. Are your preparing your team to score one more goal than the opponent, or to not concede any goal at all?

We want to win. To win you would have to score a goal more. We are not disrespectful. We know Cote d’Ivoire has been to the World Cup and finished ahead of us in the qualifiers. It’s a great team, though under construction. It’s the last opportunities for certain members of this golden generation to win an AFCON, for it will be difficult for them to play and win the next. It entails a lot of hurdles which we must overcome to win it. We will play our game and courageously take our chance.

Did you ever imagine reaching this point when the competition kicked off?

No. we were not predicting. We wanted to play the matches as they came and make the best possible results. We are keeping up with the same philosophy, we are not forecasting. We have two matches left. We will think of the second, after having contested the first. We will play that one and try to make the best possible results.

This is your first AFCON, as well as some of your team members, don’t you have a standard you could deem as acceptable performance?

On going to Kinshasa to start our preparation, I said we were in a difficult group but that we were going to do everything to occupy one of the two first places of the group. The goal was not easily attained. At the quarter finals we confronted Congo, which we analysed and won. Now, it is Cote d’Ivoire. We are going to analyse their playstyle to trouble them, and if possible, beat them; for that is what we want to be in this competition: a thorn in the flesh.

Talking about the quarter final against Congo, which took place in a peculiar context, was this context an added motivation and determination to your players?

The events that took place in Brazzaville (Editor's note: mass evictions of DR Congo nationals with illegal status) a few months ago hurt and continue to cause pain; for there are still people in Kinshasa who sleep in a stadium, people packed up in corners of the city. You cannot hide all that. We each have family on either side of the river. When politics interplays with certain things, we hit extremes that are not acceptable. There was a highly eccentric football match, nobody was willing to loose. But players are different. They are some that are over motivated and others that are simply downcast. I have players who have confided their inhibitions to me because they have received a lot of messages. Thus they could really feel the weight of the match. My task was to try to get rid of this pressure off them. This can explain the fact that they were a bit down during the first half. When we had conceded two goals they got up and said: “We cannot lose.” So they put in every effort. At the end of it all I think the victory is well merited for Congo had two goal opportunities and used them.

Led by 2-0 at 25 minutes to the end, you continued to believe in it?

I was still confident. While doing replacement I kept saying to the guys: “it is possible, it’s possible.” We had had many opportunities during the first half without scoring, and if we continue to press on, we will end up scoring. Especially since Congo had retreated a little more. In football, psychologically a 2-0 score is always more difficult to deal with than when you are leading 1-0. Because you consider the match winding up and when the opponent you a goal you start to doubt. It’s what happened.

While celebrating in the dressing room after the victory against Congo, we heard players singing your name, improvising a ballet. Was there a bet, a sealed agreement, or it was simply gratefulness from your guys for the job you are doing?

It’s from Kinshasa. All of Kinshasa, all Congo know “Ibenge, coach.” It’s a chant of the supporters that has started with supporters of AS Vita Club. There is a group of animators that has come up with a choreography to this chant in which they mimic the gestures I make on the bench during training. As we are musicians’ off-springs, they managed to come up with a song that has become a track in the entire country. It’s a kind of gratitude for the work I have done. I do have a good name with the public.

So you do have a nationwide recognition. Do you consider yourself a star, national hero?

My God! Very far from that…

But do you think the esteem people have of you is that kind of thing?

I know the esteem has changed. I would be lying to not acknowledge it. But myself, I have not changed.

During the celebration in the dressing room you did not take part in the rejoicing but stayed quite reserved. Are your waiting to explode at the evening of the finals?

It’s a very strong inward joy. I was very happy and proud. It is true that I take a little bit of a distance very so often. We try to get back into the next match for the competition is not over. I hope your question is a premonition (laughs). It is true that in a small gathering with my friends I am not so shy (burst of laughter). Not so reserved, I’d say.

The success of DR Congo, you attribute it to what? Preparation, Organisation, or personal motivation of players? The peculiar relations you have with them?

A bit of all of that. I started off with a group that has refined with time. I did not have a preparatory encounter. We started the qualifiers directly, and with Cameroon. It was not easy to come up with a list of 23 for the final tournament. But I had put up the criteria in advance. The first was: to be competitive, play in his club. The second was the level of the competition. The 3rd was competition in the post of play and the fourth was interaction within the group. To this should be added preparation. I imagined that like all the others this AFCON will be difficult. So physically you should be in top form. I was looking for a calm place not far from the competition ground, for travelling in Africa always a little complicated. A venue that was excellently what we looked for is the CAF Centre of Excellence at Mbankomo. The first week put everyone on top form. The second week of the preparation was based on tactics.

Beyond the calm of the working environment, how did you find the infrastructures of the CAF Centre of Excellence at Mbankomo. You who have an experience working as trainer in Europe and Asia?

We were very happy being there. The quietness, the means to work with, the availability of the staff, every condition was met. The weak point is one playground that is not large enough, but that does not hamper work. I think we would return there as soon as possible to prepare other sessions.

Were you not subjected to pressure in choosing player x over player y? Were there no press organs to observe that you were giving preference to players of AS Vita Club over those of other local clubs?

That will always be, when you are in a country of football and passion. We are about 70 millions in DR Congo, and that’s about how many coaches we have. Each has his preferred players. There is a natural pressure from the public and the press, which has its preferences. What is important is that your management should not put pressure on you. With that, my management has honourably kept quiet. When I gave the list they did not know it. I worked totally independently and in total calm to build up my list. The essential thing is to be just. People have understood that my double position as the trainer of AS Vita and national coach does not cause me to be partial. We played in Lubumbashi and when the players of TP Mazembe were not in top form, I did not line them up. It was same for AS Vita players when the team played in Kinshasa.

Is being Congolese and in charge of the national team an added pressure?

We always have to show proof. We are not complaining. But when they take an expatriate he is not required to prove himself. We struggled to qualify for AFCON and when we had to take on the final tournament some people were saying this is his first AFCON, won’t it be necessary to add to him a more experience trainer? But when it’s an expatriate it poses no problem. Sometimes he comes although an indigene qualified the team for AFCON. There are still some mind sets to change. I am not against anybody. Black, white, yellow, what matters is competence. But that this is still an issue in the 21st century, frankly speaking it beats my comprehension.

To you local trainers do not receive the same consideration as the expatriate who arrives…

(He interrupts) It’s an observation.

From what is understood, do you feel obliged to succeed in order to make people understand that more responsibilities and adequate working conditions should be given to African trainers?

Without asking this question, we try to do our job the best possible. We are obliged to be exemplary because nothing is handed down to us. For some of us who lived in Europe, we are a victim of collectivism all the time. If a black man steals, you are all thieves. When it’s a white that steals no one says whites are thieves. We are no more stupid than the others, or less honest.

How do you cope shifting one weekend to the other from being the trainer of AS Vita Club to being the coach of DR Congo? Is it always a different approach if you are trainer of a club than when you are coach?

It is completely different. It is not the same job. When we gather on the field for a week as a team, it is like we are in the club with the players that are present. The important task is to be able to follow these players in order to be able to line them up. You have to be perpetually conscious. Meanwhile in the club, you are with them always. Because you are in the club every day you, cannot always travel to try to build the team, meet players, trainers and managers. Fortunately that we have modern means of communication, which allow us to stay in touch.

Concretely how is that organised?

When the team is training in DR Congo it’s much work, but it’s relatively easy for I dispatch trainers in order not to keep in line. I start with the training of AS Vita Club, I return, change myself and do the training of the national team after. When we are abroad, my assistant takes charge of Vita Club. I wish to underline that I did not campaign for the position of coach. The position was proposed to me. They saw that I was doing a good job with my club, and that I could be of assistance to the national team. Being under contract, if the management of the club did not give the go ahead, I will not have been coach.

Do you think you could handle the two positions for a long time?

In the long term it is not possible for you would need to have more than 24 hours in a day. So at some time it will have to stop.

When is that decision? Would it be after AFCON?

It will be soon.

Where is the challenge more interesting to you; with the national team or in the club?

The options are open. I love my job and these are two wonderful challenges. On the one hand it is wonderful to train the most popular team in DR Congo with banal training sessions where up to 30.000 spectators are present. It is extraordinary to experience that. On the other hand, is the national team with all the potential there is to it. DR Congo, if the means is given to it could always find itself among the best African nations. It’s a country with passion for football and astounding talents that are not prospected, shining out with time.

DR Congo like some African teams is sometimes confronted with making a choice between selecting bi-nationals, who have excellent training conditions in Europe, but not well grounded in local realities, and local players with great potential but not enough training. To you which is the way forward?

I am for the fact that training in Africa should be improved in order to have the best possible national team and the best possible players. The others are Congolese as well and do not always like doing this categorisation. For if we improve training at home, and the others equally have a good training over there, it could only be advantageous and we would be able to spot the best Congolese whether he is at home or elsewhere. So while waiting for local training conditions to improve, we thus turn to those that are trained abroad. But when we call for them, they should not be capricious. They should not come dragging their legs. That is the deal I have with them. I tell them: “if you come today it should be because you desire it. You are not coming to claim whatsoever. We do not have the same means as France, Belgium, England or Germany. If you decide to come knowing the conditions fully well, then you should not complain. There is a project and this is what I propose. If you commit to it you come, without dragging your legs.” But we should be able to provide means for ourselves locally. By investing in football we can improve education.

How do you evaluate this 30th edition of AFCON especially concerning the game?

A very difficult AFCON, may be not flamboyant. We see that the teams are proving their worth. We cannot make prognostics. There are not so many goals scored. The teams are keeping up.

Is that regression or an upwards movement?

We continue to progress in Africa. People adore a moving game, not forcefully he that wins. Before, we focused on raw diamonds. Today, we add efficacy to it and it should not be regretted. For example, Cape Verde, a small country as concerns population, which can afford to have players as Ryan Mendes and Odair Fortes on the reserve bench, who play in Lille and Reims; that speaks for itself. These would be lead players in many teams. This shows the progress of African football.

Between Europe, Asia and Africa, where you have worked, what main differences can you point out?

At the level of organisation, Europe and Asia are far ahead of Africa. In China I had 12 training stadiums of very good quality at my disposition. They are football fields after all. In Kinshasa, I have just one training field for the runners-up of the CAF Champions League. We are improving with a centre, but we are still very far behind. As concerns quality, we are getting closer with the means at hand. In every corner on the street in Africa, football is played and all the time. There is an enormous potential but which gets lost for lack of training. On this point Asia is far behind. In China where I was, the policy of child bearing is one child per family. So when it’s a child, he is pushed towards studies and not football. Football is the physique, the technique and the tactics but what makes the difference at the bottom line is desire. It is what the Africans have.

Is there a lack in tactics in African players?

Yes. Tactics is the ability to solve the problem the opponent puts before you. The African player will solve it individually by dribbling for they are used to playing in very difficult playgrounds, what makes them develop easy ankle movements. So when you have an African player who can solve the same problem by way of a pass or a kick, which is an exception.