Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos wants the SA Football Association (Safa) to organise a camp during the 2022 World Cup finals in November in Qatar to prepare for crucial home and away matches against Liberia in 2023.
He said it is important for the camp to take place, saying if it does not, the team will have spent six months without getting together or playing, which will be a disadvantage going into the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers next year.
“There were some players who did not train on Tuesday including Terrence Mashego and Khanyiso Mayo, who was with Cape Town City in Congo for the CAF Champions League [game],” said Broos.
“By today [Wednesday] we should have the full group of players. I have noticed that the players are happy and we had a very good training session.
“The doctor has been monitoring Lyle Foster but it [his condition] got worse on Tuesday, and so we decided to have a scan. It was no use to keep him in camp because he was not going to be ready for the two [friendly] matches [against Sierra Leone and Botswana on Saturday and Tuesday, respectively].
“We brought Ashley du Preez and it’s a great opportunity for him to show us his qualities, and maybe he can be in the group going forward.”
Broos is, however, worried about consistency in selection which is influenced by injuries.
“I have always tried to pick the strongest team. I started with a new group and I hope we will have a selection that will not change a lot so that we start working with the same group. It helps us to prepare well for the match against Liberia next year.”
He added that fans should look at a bigger picture to understand why Bafana lost to France and Morocco.
“We saw what happened and how we lost to Ghana after winning almost all the matches. We also lost to France and people did not mention that they are the world champions. We must not underestimate Sierra Leone and Botswana because we have to regain our confidence.
“People believed in the team during the World Cup qualifiers, but that has [since] disappeared and there is more criticism. We have to bring back the confidence, it’s time to have victories and it is the goal of these two friendly matches.”
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