Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos was happy that his team will leave for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament on a high after securing a morale-boosting victory over Ghana.
However, Broos was disappointed with his team’s performance at the Dobsonville Stadium, Soweto, on Tuesday afternoon.
Bafana scraped through with a 1-0 win over a weakened Black Stars as part of their last preparations ahead of this year’s Afcon tournament that will be hosted by Morocco, starting on Sunday.
The South African national team will depart for Morocco tonight.
Against Ghana, Broos was able to give fringe players a rare start, and they did not do a bad job at all.
More players to join Bafana camp
With the four overseas-based players joining the camp in Morocco on Thursday, Broos will now have a pleasing headache come the crunch time of choosing his starting line-up when they kick off their campaign against Angola on Monday.
Said a dejected Broos after the Ghana match: “It is a few days before the tournament, and it was a game that we did not want to see.
“But it is always better to go to Morocco with a victory rather than a draw or, in a worst case, a defeat.
“I think that we can do much better than we did against Ghana. The players may have been cautious about getting injured since the tournament starts this weekend, and the new players were also adjusting to playing at that level.
He continued: “But I am not worried because a few key players will join us in camp on Thursday.
“I am sure we will be ready on Monday to play against Angola. I am going to repeat that it was not a game we wanted to play, but I am happy with the result.”
Different kind of pressure anticipated
About being tagged as one of the competition’s favourites, Broos said that they will have a different kind of pressure from the last Afcon two years ago.
He said: “This means that we will start this Afcon not with the same status as two years ago, when we did not have pressure.
“I agree that next week Monday, the pressure will be higher than in the last Afcon when we opened against Mali, but I think this team can resist that pressure.
“The boys showed it in the recent 2026 World Cup qualifiers and also in crucial games where we played under a lot of pressure—think about the game at home against Nigeria, think about the last game against Rwanda.”
“This team has a lot of experience, and I am not worried about pressure. We will complete the final touches by the end of the week.
“We cannot complain about overseas-based players who are not here. Countries like Cameroon, Morocco, and Senegal only started their preparations on Monday due to the players who were not released by their overseas clubs.
“We only have one week in training; our consolation is that it is only four players that will come late, and we should not use that as an excuse to perform.”
