Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos says he was pleased with the latest international camp stating their performances through fatigue makes him confident they will qualify for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
Bafana beat Mozambique 2-1 and drew 1-1 against Angola in last week’s friendly fixtures at Mbombela Stadium as they prepared for the March 2023 AFCON qualifiers against Liberia.
Two wins against the West Africans would see the progress to the continental showpiece set to be hosted by Ivory Coast in January 2024, with the qualification group only holding three teams, alongside Morocco due to Zimbabwe’s disqualification last year.
“I’m not disappointed, even though I would have liked to win, that’s for sure,” Broos said about the 1-1 draw on Sunday.
“But what we expected, the same performance on Thursday was not possible today, we didn’t play so well either.
“I felt that there was a lack of determination, players were not fresh enough today. Maybe all those games in the last 14 days played a role. The many games of the last two weeks played a role maybe.
“On Thursday after the game players complained about fatigue. I think they can accept that, because if see what they have done with the semi-final and final, Carling Cup and MTN8 – you can expect that.
“I even thought that putting some fresh players in the team would be better but no, in our game also, the way we were playing, we gave too much space and time to Angola.
“We gave them time to receive the ball, so there were many things not as good as Thursday, but we didn’t lose, that’s one good thing. Secondly, I think the result is correct.”
The 2017 AFCON winning coach feels the drop in performance in the second game was to be expected and was pleased with the preperations overall.
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“I can understand the problem of fatigue because if you see the program of some players it can happen that you are less fresh than normal, but I’m satisfied with the camp and two games.
“They will be similar [opponents] to Liberia, so it was a good test and I’m sure what we showed in these games and what we showed in September, I’m sure we will qualify for AFCON, we can play good football, modern football but there was a lack of freshness [against Angola].
