Cape Town - Coach Hugo Broos has a good feeling about Bafana Bafana as they prepare for back-to-back 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Liberia.
The 70-year-old Belgian was appointed Bafana coach in May 2021, and almost two years later has seen the squad grow. The national team suffered one major setback early during his tenure after they failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.
However, along the way, and against great odds, Bafana had a few excellent wins, including one at home over Ghana, the four-time African champions. If the return fixture (November 2021), the side went down to Ghana in the most controversial circumstances, and that cost the team a berth in the final qualifying round. With it the team’s Qatar World Cup hopes evaporated in the Accra air.
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Earlier this year, Bafana Bafana took a 5-0 hammering against the former World Cup champions France and Broos copped lots of flak. He was again roundly criticised, but Broos felt the side was making progress and the squad had responded well to his coaching.
Throughout his tenure, Broos hardly ever had time to prepare the team adequately, and on occasions, the clubs ran their players into the ground during matches just ahead of the national team training camps.
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Broos has been able to weather all these onslaughts and has reached a stage where he has confidence in the current squad. His mandate is to qualify the team for next year's Afcon in Ivory Coast. If the team fails, he will be shown the exit door.
“We are confident. We played four good (friendly) games in September and November,” said Broos.
“There was one game that was less remarkable. It was against Botswana, but that was my responsibility. I changed the whole team to see the players that I had not seen so much in action.
“We have a close group. We feel these two matches will be a mental struggle. It is always better when you have a close group than having players who do not like to be in the team.
“If we want to be sure of qualifying, we have to win those two games.”
@Herman_Gibbs