Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos believes he has a much better squad than when they opened the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Morocco in June last year.
South Africa opened Group K in Rabat with a 2-1 defeat, in which the Atlas Lions came from a goal down after Lyle Foster’s opener.
However, Broos and the squad came under fire for the way the North Africans dominated the fixture at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium.
“I think when you see the team that was playing against Morocco to now, I think this team has made progress, certainly, also for the fact after the game against Morocco there were a lot of critics,” Broos said when asked by iDiski Times about the squad comparison since the opening loss.
“You saw what happened, what Morocco did at the FIFA World Cup, so losing [in Morocco] was not a humiliation or whatever, they have a very good team!
“But okay, I see now the games in September and November there is progress in this group and that is the most important thing I was looking for, it’s what I was looking for nearly two years.
“It was really difficult, I had to [build] another team, and the critics we got, it’s not easy working in such an environment, in such an atmosphere but it’s changed a bit now and again, I’m very confident in what I saw in the past games.
“But we’ll have to do it on the field on Friday and next Tuesday, this is for sure.”
South Africa take on Liberia at Orlando Stadium on Friday afternoon (18h00).
