Hugo Broos has taken a thinly veiled dig at Czechia’s style of play, suggesting that true football lovers would have preferred watching Bafana Bafana over their opponents in the 1-1 World Cup draw.
The Belgian coach was frank in his assessment of how Czechia approached the game, describing them as a side that relies on physicality and directness rather than passing and movement.
“Czechia is a physical team, they don’t like to play football, passing game, they play straight, they have very tall players to do this — 1.9 and taller,” Broos said.
He acknowledged that South Africa’s squad, lacking in height for the most part, found it difficult to deal with the aerial threat Czechia posed throughout the match.
“We have one player of that height, Okon in central defence, the rest is shorter, 1.8 and smaller, so it was difficult for them with those high balls,” he said.
Despite his obvious displeasure with the approach, Broos was careful not to be overly critical, accepting that Czechia’s tactics were a deliberate and legitimate game plan.
“It is what Czechia did, it’s their tactic, I can’t say why this or why that. It is their coach who decides that, and maybe if I was coach of Czechia, I’d do the same thing. But I think if you like football, you’d like the game more we played than them.”
South Africa and Czechia both have one point, having lost to Mexico and South Korea in their respective opening Group A games.