Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos says he doesn’t regret starting Veli Mothwa in their 2-2 draw with Uganda on Friday evening.
Mothwa was subject to a howler as he conceded the goal that put Uganda 2-1 ahead on Friday evening in their Group K opener in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations Qualifier.
It appeared the East Africans were set to secure a historic comeback win at Orlando Stadium but Thalente Mbatha’s 95th-minute goal on debut secured a point.
Mothwa’s inclusion raised eyebrows before the game he’s yet to feature in a competitive fixture this season with AmaZulu, while Sipho Chaine has been in impressive form for Orlando Pirates, albeit having not made his international debut in his career yet.
“This is something you know after the game [if a selection is a mistake] you don’t know it… if Veli doesn’t make that error, okay then maybe we win the game, and that can happen [that mistake] to every goalkeeper,” Broos said after the game.
“So when I don’t regret that I put him in goal. Now we have to see how he is, he’s very disappointed. How shall I say it? We have much work to bring him back [his confidence] a bit mentally and we’ll see if it’s possible. But I don’t regret playing Veli today in goal at all.”
Ricardo Goss is the other goalkeeping option Broos will now have in mind going into the next game as they assess Mothwa’s readiness to feature again after a mentally challenging incident by letting Rogers Mato’s speculative long-range effort into goal.
“You know when it’s not a nice thing when you make a mistake like that, okay it’s a draw but as a keeper, you know what you did wrong and we could have lost the game with that [mistake], so okay he’s really down for the moment.
“But I will see how he is in the next days, but you can’t… if you feel he’s not ready to play that game on Tuesday, then you can’t play him because the risk is there that he makes a mistake again.
“So for a keeper is more important than an in-field player that he’s mentally good, sometimes he has to do two things in the game, and that’s what it was today – what did he have to do?
‘Nothing… but for the one or two or three things, it was one mistake and that’s not a happy thing for a goalkeeper. We’ll see how he is tomorrow, after tomorrow and for Tuesday [against South Sudan].”
