Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams says Hugo Broos’ change of tactical approach showcased they can win ugly and hailed the Evidence Makgopa’s role in the team.
Bafana notably played with little ambition to build from the back and often hoofed the ball to safety which is not synonymous to the South African style of play.
However, it brought the biggest win in AFCON history for the nation, which Broos notably stated was out of necessity as he admitted it’s not the style of the country which he looked to develop over the past two years.
“I think the opponent was different, Mali played football, and they tried to build up, this team don’t build up, they kick the ball in front and have very dangerous players with Shalulile, he attacks on his own and then the number 10 [Tjiueza], and also the two wingers,” Broos said about their contrasting tactical approach than the Mali game.
“We did the tactical analysis of Namibia and we knew we didn’t have to play that football we played against Mali – and the boys did it very well, maybe not always very nice, good football but against this opponent the result was more important.
“And the way we did it was very good, scoring four goals – very important in the end for the goal difference.”
Williams says there have been no issues with taking the instructions on board as it yielded an impressive victory that moved them from zero points with a -2 goal difference to second in Group E with three points and a +2 goal difference.
This has thrust Bafana back into contention to win Group E, ahead of the final fixture on Wednesday against the third-ranked side in Africa, Tunisia.
“You saw a different Bafana Bafana today, there’s two sides to us now, so that’s good, that’s what this tournament shows, that it’s not always you need pretty football, we played pretty football [against Mali] with no result,” Williams said to iDiski Times.
“So today we were a bit more direct, I mean we’ve got a target man in Evidence Makgopa who’s done amazing work for us… yes he hasn’t scored a goal but he’s so key in the way we play, so props to him, his goal will come.
“We showed we can learn from our mistakes, we can’t always want to look for nice football, we need to play to win and the nice football will come, it will always be there but at this moment, we need results and that’s what we done today.
