Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos says there’s not much to say about Motobi Mvala’s own goal against Wydad Atheltic Club and admitted he made a light-hearted joke with him in camp.
With Mvala netting a late own goal in the second leg CAF Champions League semi-final against the reigning champions Wydad to dump his side out of the competition, naturally there would be questions about his mental state after such a massive game.
But Broos has backed him and selected him for the Morocco clash in their final 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier and stated it’s part of the game, but it didn’t stop him from having some banter with the Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder-cum-defender when he arrived.
“Yeah, you don’t need to talk much of such thing [like the own goal], it’s an accident, it was a good free-kick, I know, I was a defender myself when a ball like is coming and you’re running to your own goal, and you have to put the ball away, yes, just a bad position, you’re running and you touch the ball and ‘boom’ it goes in,” Broos said on SABC Sport.
“Can you blame Mothobi for that? No! Do you have to talk about that? No! I just joked a little bit and said ‘ah you scored now’. And he said okay, but besides that, it’s something that happens on every field in every game, so why talk about it.”
Mvala featured in both games alongside Siyanda Xulu against Liberia in the previous two AFCON qualifiers.
Bafana host the North African giants at FNB Stadium on Saturday, 17 June at 17h00, with both teams already qualified for the continental showpiece in Ivory Coast in January.
