Bafana Bafana assistant coach Helman Mkhalele has explained why head coach Hugo Broos stormed off the pitch immediately after his side’s 2-2 draw with Liberia.
The Africa Cup of Nations qualifier had started well for Broos’ man, with Lyle Foster handing South Africa an early 2-0 lead before creating a host of chances to be out of sight.
However, Bafana were not clinical and composed enough, allowing Liberia, who sit in number 139 in the FIFA World Rankings, back into the game.
Substitutes Tonia Tisdell and Mohammed Sangare scored late in the game to steal an important point from Orlando Stadium, which means Bafana now need to beat Liberia in Liberia on Tuesday to keep their chances of qualifying for the AFCON alive.
Broos wasn’t impressed with his side’s implosion and opted to snub his post-match media duties, sending assistant Mkhalele instead.
“I think it got over him, because you could see in the game we created lots and lots of chances that we should’ve scored,” he said when asked SABC Sport about Broos’ storming off the pitch.
“He’s still recovering from that [missing so many chances].
“But coming to the game itself, I believe we played the game so well but we played in patches.
“We were supposed to kill the in the first half but we took the foot off the pedal. Then they started to regain confidence. That’s where I thought we lost it.
“More especially after the first goal they scored, that’s when we tried to urge the players to remain composed, but you could that they started to panic and I believe that led to the equalising goal.”
Mkhalele also explained the technical team warned Bafana during half-time to be more clinical but it wasn’t to be.
“We told the players that the game is not over, we need to make sure that we take the chances that we created because any goal that they will score, it will work on their minds positively, which it did and negatively on our side.
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“We tried to emphasise of making sure to take our chances but unfortunately we didn’t take them. Even second half, we created lots and lots of chances.”
Later on, Broos also wanted to snub the official post-match press conference, and had sent Mkhalele, with gathered journalists requesting his presence but in the end his mandatory press conference was nothing more than a farce.
South Africa have dropped into last place in Group K, with Liberia being level on one point but ahead due to having scored their two away goals at Orlando Stadium.
