Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos says there will be no experimentation against Algeria as they target a positive result ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Following the disappointing 1-1 draw to Andorra this week in Anaba, South Africa face off against the North African giants on Tuesday to end their first-ever FIFA Series.
The match will be hosted at the iconic Nelson Mandela Stadium and in what was a proverbial B team against the European minnows, Broos is set to now go to his full-strength squad against Les Verts.
“There will be lots of changes [for Algeria], I looked a bit at both games, and I think it was the best opportunity to give those guys, the [inexperienced] guys to play last Thursday, it wasn’t a difficult opponent, even though the game ended up difficult,” Broos said.
“But if you compare Andorra with Algeria, there is a lot of difference in quality, so we need to put our best team [forward] on Tuesday and we can’t afford to experiment again, it will be a different team – also players who didn’t play on Thursday, they won’t be tired. They will be fresh to play the game, we need that.”
The Belgian, who lead Bafana to a podium finish at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, their first medal in 24 years, says the time for excuses are over, as they look to get the side in the right mental state for Nigeria and Zimbabwe in June.
“It will be a difficult game certainly, we all know Algeria has a lot of quality, it was a disappointment for all Algerians to see them play at AFCON and out in the group stages already,” Broos said when asked what they can expect from Vladimir Petkovic’s side.
“They have much quality, I saw already the game they played on Friday against Bolivia, you see already the motivation of the players is different because it’s a new coach, they wanted to show him they deserve to be in the team, they deserve to play.
“So only for that the motivation will be big in the team of Algeria, playing at home, the supporters will be there, it will be a good test for us again after AFCON and we’ll try to make a good result, but the performance is more important than the result.
“Even [though] we need victories to keep our ranking but yeah, it is what it is, it’s more important [to play well to prepare] for Nigeria and Zimbabwe in two months time – for those games there’s no excuses, we have to secure good results.”
The match in Algiers is set to kick off at 23h00 on Tuesday evening.
