Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos is not completely happy and has called for his squad to show more as they are no longer considered underdogs at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Coming into the 2025 edition, having finished third in Ivory Coast in the previous AFCON, Broos admits there’s more respect given to Bafana and thus raising the level of competitiveness.
Bafana have shown signs of brilliance and calamity at times, with three erratic Group B games, but with six points on the board, they secured runners-up spot where they could meet Cameroon, Ivory Coast or even Mozambique albeit a slim chance for the latter.
“I agree I’m not really happy with the performances or the way some players are acting on the pitch, that’s true, it’s something we have to work on, from the beginning of the tournament, we have to know the progress we made in the last two, three years is no guarantee that you will come on the pitch and win the game,” Broos said.
“I said already before the tournament, it will be tougher for us than the tournament two years ago, because everyone knows what a good team we are, and the mindset of the opponent is totally different, totally different and we have to adapt to all that.
“We know it won’t be easy for us anymore; we have to play every game on 100% of our talent and qualities and if we don’t do that with the right mentality, if we don’t do that, we’ll always be in trouble.
“It’s not now because you’re South Africa, that teams are afraid of you, it’s a motivation for the teams trying to beat you so you have to fight more, more concentrated, more focused and not thinking it would be easy today, like we thought after 20 minutes [vs Zimbabwe].
“Okay, it was easy… no they need to go on, no foot on the breaks, go on and push, which is something we know if we want to go far in this tournament, this is the mentality we need to go far, if we don’t it will be finished very quickly.”
There’s now a break of a week before the travel to Rabat where South Africa will continue their campaign but as of now the players will be given some time off in Marrakech, where the squad is currently based.
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