Golden Arrows head coach Manqoba Mngqithi believes Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos should’ve started Oswin Appollis, Tshepang Moremi and Relebohile Mofokeng.
Bafana started the opening game of the FIFA World Cup 2026 with a 5-3-2 formation, and this was the second time they played this formation.
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The tactical change created a lot of noise from South African football supporters stating that this was not supposed to happen.
The formation relied more on full backs to push up higher without wingers when Bafana had the ball but obviously it took time for them to get into Mexico’s half. Before, Bafana would go with wingers where you see Oswin Appollis, Relebohile Mofokeng playing out wide in one vs one situations.
Speaking on SABC Sport, Mngqithi made a huge example stating that Bafana started a game like Brazil not starting Neymar Jr and Vinicius Jr.
“The reality is that we had some moments, we had some moments immediately after we conceded the goal,” Mngqithi told SABC Sport
“There were some moments where we put our feet on the ball and we started to have some moments, though they were scary sometimes in the build-up, because the structure was not very clear, but the reality is, if you are Brazil, and you play a big match like this without Neymar and Vinicius, it will always be a question mark.
“Because in the team that we had, we did not have creative players, and I’m talking Apollis, I’m talking Rele, I’m talking Moremi, I’m talking maybe Mshishi starting the match game, if needs be, though I would have thought Sebelebele, Appollis, Moremi should have played this game, and I believe they could have given us something, because the few minutes that Appollis played, it really gave us something to think about, and I knew when he starts playing, he always cuts inside into his right foot and cracks it.
“The few minutes that he got, he gave us a shot like this. So, can you imagine if we had these moments, first half and the moments where Moremi would do what Mudau did on Montes, run at them.
“Yeah, that, that led to Montes getting a red card, because we spoke even before the match that we needed speed behind the defence, because in as much as Montes is good technically, but because of his height, he does not have the speed to deal with the space behind.
“But we did not do what could have been fundamental for a team that says we want to play a counter-taking game, because that’s how we looked. We looked like a team that said we want to sit in, so that we can come out, but who are you coming out with?
“Because we only had Iqraam [Rayners] up top, only in the last minutes of the game where Mudau said no, I’m going, and Modiba said I’m going. Then we started to see some moments, oh.”
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