By Velile Mnyandu
As Bafana Bafana prepares for a major test against world champions France in an international match at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Lille tonight, head coach Hugo Broos has received some thumbs up from one of the Premier Soccer League coaches.
Sekhukhune FC assistant coach and former South African national U20 head coach Thabo Senong, says Broos’ vision to rebuild a strong Bafana, needs a strong backing from the PSL coaches and they are ready to support him.
Senong who worked as an assistant coach to two former Bafana head coaches, Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba and Stuart Baxter knows all too well about a good understanding between the club coaches and the men’s senior national team technical bench.
Since his arrival in South Africa in May last year, Broos has preached the importance of sharing a round table with the PSL coaches but his efforts to make that possible in the past eight months have proved to be slightly difficult.
The Belgian-born coach, whose highest moment in African football was when he lifted the 2017 African Cup of Nations tournament in Gabon with Cameroon, has at times sounded frustrated on how long it’s taking him to share his vision for Bafana with the people who work with these players on a regular basis, the PSL coaches.
But Senong, who took Amajita to two FIFA U20 World Cup tournament in South Korea (2017) and Poland (2019) respectively and most recently was in charge of the Lesotho senior men’s national team, fully understands the importance of these engagements.
“I’ve always been a fan of a solid working relationship between club coaches and national team coaches, I have always received some support, lots of support when I was a national coach from club coaches. There have always been challenges whenever there’s FIFA dates, especially when you work with young players,” said Senong emphasizing the importance of the communication lines.
“But in Lesotho I received a lot of support from club coaches when I was a national coach there. And even now when I’m on the other side as a club coach, I’m doing the same, I support Hugo Boss. We communicate via emails, there’s communication, we’ve met before, he knows me very well. I know him very well.
“And it’s important that we support him, we update him about the match minutes of players like Yusuf Maart, Nyiko Mobbie, the training behavior of the same players so that he gets more or less the information then when they go to camp.
“Broos has a base, he has a primary foundation of what to work on, on what to improve, and on how to help those players, as far as periodization is concerned.”
Recently, Broos revealed that in resolving a previous misunderstanding around Goodman Mosele, he sat down with the player and Orlando Pirates co-coach Mandla Ncikazi to find a solution to this matter. And Mosele is now back in the Bafana camp and in line for selection against France today. This is another indication that something positive is coming out of these efforts to work together between the Bafana technical team and PSL club coaches.
And Senong stresses the importance of taking initiatives also as club coaches to improve these communication lines as Bafana aims to build a strong team ahead of the crucial AFCON 2023 qualifiers which start in June this year.
“Of course, we have to take initiatives as club coaches. I take initiatives to always update the medical team, always communicating with Broos, always communicating Helman Mkhalele. And it is important, it is also our duty as club coaches, just to make sure that we we send that information and the relationship starts there.
“And for all the the communications that we’ve sent, there’s been good communication coming from their side as well. So everything has been good. And I hope that the relationship can also continue with the junior national teams, because we also want to start developing young players, at Sekhukhune United, so that they can help our respective junior national teams,” concluded Senong on the importance of this relationship.
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