Bafana Bafana play Mozambique in friendly

Hugo Broos, coach of South Africa during the International Friendly between South Africa and Sierra Leone at Soccer City, Johannesburg on 24 September 2022 ©Gavin Barker/BackpagePix

Hugo Broos, the national football team’s coach, believes it is critical for his team to win both friendly matches. Broos said this as he began preparations for two matches at the camp in Mpumalanga.

Today, Bafana Bafana will play a friendly match against Mozambique. In the other, they will meet Angola on Sunday morning. Mbombela Stadium will host both matches. These two matches follow two recent friendlies in which Bafana Bafana defeated Botswana and Sierra Leone, respectively.

All of these games are to prepare Bafana Bafana for their match against Liberia in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, which will take place early next year. Hugo Broos, on the other hand, was forced to make changes due to injuries and the unavailability of other players.

Thibang Phethe, Mihlali Mayambela, Innocent Maela, and Nkosinathi Sibisi were all unavailable due to injuries. This has hampered the coach’s preparations, as he wanted to use players who had previously won games for the national team. Bathusi Aubaas and Siyanda Xulu of TS Galaxy have arrived in camp, and their presence will be felt.

“We have injured players like Phethe, Sithole, Maela and Sibisi. And there are players we did not call like Percy Tau and Sithole because they did not play in their teams. There are a lot of players missing that I thought we would use,” said Broos.

The coach, on the other hand, emphasised the significance of his team’s victory.

“Winning again should help us boost the confidence of the players after beating Botswana and Sierra Leone,” said Broos.

The national team is under pressure after missing the previous Afcon and the World Cup, which begins this weekend. South Africa must defeat Liberia next year after being defeated by Morocco in Group K.