Menzi Magubane
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos made his point with the South African Football Association (Safa) by rejecting a friendly match against Lesotho.
Bafana were supposed to travel to Qatar after the Morocco match to play a friendly against Iran. But they cancelled, leaving Broos with no game for his team.
Lesotho, however, were keen to step in to give Bafana that friendly on Tuesday. Broos however rejected the proposal.
He made it clear that he wants bigger teams to test the squad.
“What is it that we will learn from Lesotho? Playing Lesotho is no different from having our own training session,” said Broos.
The 70-year-old has told Safa before that he doesn’t want to play teams like Mozambique, Botswana or Lesotho.
His idea is to take Bafana Bafana to a bigger stage. He said he wants to play Argentina and Portugal next, not lower-ranked teams.
“We need to be exposed to national teams so that we will know the reality of football. Teams like Lesotho won’t give us that,” he said.
Broos and his lads returned back home on Saturday from a 2-1 defeat to Morocco in the opening qualifier for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
After rejecting Lesotho, Bafana will have to wait three months to have another competitive match. In September they will host Liberia in a must-win match in Group K.
Liberia are underdogs in this three-team group, after Zimbabwe’s expulsion in these qualifiers. Morocco and Bafana are tipped to be the teams that will dominate this group and qualify for next year’s Afcon in Ivory Coast.
Broos has already said that he knows what they need to do against the Liberians in September. On Monday Broos will have an opportunity to take notes when the Liberians take on Morocco.
Image source: @Witness
