Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos says Iqraam Rayners will get his chance against Algeria but warns international level is one or two levels higher than the PSL.
South Africa opened their FIFA Series against Andorra with a disappointing 1-1 draw in Anaba before the main fixture against hosts Les Verts this week.
Bafana had 80% possession and 16 shots at goal, four of which were on target but conceded in the opening five minutes after an error from goalkeeper Ricardo Goss.
They secured an equaliser from Elias Mokwana twenty minutes later but failed to secure the win against the 164th ranked side in the world, which is likely to affect Bafana’s rankings should they not secure a result against Algeria on Tuesday.
“This is a problem already for several years in South African football, so we don’t really have the big scorer, even when there are guys who score rather easily in the local competition,” Broos said about the scoring issue.
“You see Mayo eight goals, Rayners also [scoring] but we’ll see, Iqraam on Tuesday will play but everyone has to know those games, international games are one or two levels higher than PSL, it’s not easy to score but on the other end….
“We have to see for the moment there are three strikers who aren’t here, Makgopa, Mothiba and Foster – so there are some things to wait for. I hope all three of them… maybe not Mothiba but Makgopa and Foster will be ready in June.
“Those games are important, we proved at AFCON we can score, but last Thursday we had many chances and we didn’t score enough.”
With Bafana already in North Africa for a week now, Broos said everything has gone to plan thus far and there are no real issues to report, from the hospitality to injuries while he’s been pleased with the output of the squad in the sessions.
“Yes [I’m happy with the progress] things have been going well, the accommodations are good, training pitches are good, maybe not the day after the game wasn’t a good pitch but okay it was not that difficult,” Broos said.
“On the other side, the trips were good, don’t have to fly so long from Anaba until Algiers and the rest, the players are good, the atmosphere is good, so I’m very happy just we had to win the game against Andorra with all those chances we had.
“We had to score more than once but okay, I gave the chances to players, new players also and what we wanted to see, we saw, that’s the most important thing.”
Algeria host South Africa for the first time at the Nelson Mandela Stadium on Tuesday evening (23h00).
