Despite it being a friendly match and still a bit far until the 2026 Fifa World Cup, Panama coach Thomas Christiansen has stated that both his side and Bafana Bafana must improve their level.
Panama and Bafana played to a 1-1 stalemate in their first of two friendly matches at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Friday night.
Orlando Pirates star Oswin Appollis equalised for the home side in the second half to cancel out Édgar Bárcenas’ 22nd-minute goal. Both teams will now quickly switch their focus to the second and final friendly match in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Bafana, ranked number 60 on the Fifa World Rankings, controlled most parts of the game against a 34th-ranked Panama side, with some convincing football, and created enough chances to kill the game.
Christiansen did admit that Bafana’s display is exactly what they expected, but emphasised that the two teams still have a lot to improve on ahead of the World Cup in June.
“I saw what we expected from this South African team, a physical and fast team in attack, with good transitions and making a lot of good runs,” Christiansen said after the match.
“They also caught us on some of the spaces we had intended to close. But it was just a friendly game and not the same as the World Cup. And I just think both teams need to upgrade or improve their level going to the World Cup.”
Bafana coach Hugo Broos, on the other hand, was impressed with the overall performance of his team but flagged out the defensive mistake that resulted in a goal.
“I think everybody can agree that we played a good game … we dominated Panama for 90 minutes, and we only made two mistakes during the game,” Broos said after the game.
“Their goal, we should have kicked that ball into the stands, but we wanted to do things in a nice way. I told the players during halftime that there is nothing wrong with kicking the ball into the stands when they are under pressure.
“The second chance was in the second half, but overall, we were a better team, and we will not look ahead to the game on Tuesday,” Broos added.
