New Bafana Bafana left-back Terrence Mashego has revealed what coach Hugo Broos told him ahead of his successful debut for the national team.
Mashego made his first appearance for South Africa in their 3-1 win in Ethiopia on Saturday that saw Bafana move to seven points in Group G.
The Cape Town City player has seemingly convinced Broos in training after the Belgian tactician had previously played Nyiko Mobbie out of position at left-back.
Mashego now opened up on his first talks with Broos, saying he is more than just a coach on the pitch.
“The first day when I came in, he called me and then he asked me ‘were you surprised (with your call-up)’ and I was like ‘no, I wasn’t surprised’,” Mashego told Bafana’s media department.
“The he said ‘yeah, I was impressed by how you play. You need to stick to your game, you need to stick to your strength’.
“The only thing that he required from me, I need to think about my role as a defender which is different. Each and every coach will emphasise on, if you are a defender to always think about your role, which is to defend. And going forward it’s a bonus.
“It’s something that he told me, so it wasn’t that difficult to adjust to his system, because for me personally, he is a very good coach. Not just football-wise but he also wants to like you as a person because when I came in he asked me personal questions like where do I stay, where do I come from and everything. So he wanted to know more about me than football.”
Bafana welcome Ethiopia at the FNB Stadium at 18:00 tonight.
