Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has admitted that putting Kaizer Chiefs’ Njabulo Ngcobo in midfield against Ethiopia didn’t really work out.
The Belgian tactician saw his side beat Ethiopia for a second time in four days, even though it was a less convincing performance at FNB Stadium.
Broos was forced to make a change in midfield after Mothobi Mvala was sidelined with an injury and opted to replace him with Ngcobo. In addition, Yussuf Maart played instead of Ethon Brooks, but Broos admitted Bafana’s midfield really struggled in today’s clash.
When asked ‘what was your reason to put Ngcobo in midfield and what was your impression of his performance’, Broos responded: “There was the problem, we gave them too much freedom in the midfield.
“Those are all good players. My colleague has a fantastic midfielder, all good players, who keep the ball, who can give passes, great movement, technical very good.
“We try, we asked (the players) to put pressure on them but we couldn’t do it. We didn’t succeed for all the game and that’s why we suffered so much for all the game.”
The Bafana Bafana coach also insisted that fatigue played a role in his player’s performances, but he was happy they could pick up another important three points.
“We had a long trip to Ethiopia last week, what the boys did there was fantastic, mentality and character,” he added.
“We wanted to do it today also, but the trip to Ethiopia was in the legs of the body. We were not really fresh, we neutralise that good midfield and we suffered.
“But I can’t blame them, the way we fought for 90 minutes and the way they wanted that victory, I have to congratulate them.
“I said before the games, these two games can be two key games, it’s not really what we expected or hoped, but ok we are still first and now we will see in November, the game against Zimbabwe is maybe the most important game of the group. Let’s hope that we will be ready for that game and certainly a little bit more fresher than we were today.”
Bafana face Zimbabwe in their next qualifier in November and could qualify with a win, if Ghana fail to collect three points in Ethiopia. Otherwise it will come to a showdown between the top sides in Ghana on match day six.