One of the best footballers South Africa (SA) has ever produced, Doctor Khumalo believes Relebohile Mofokeng could play the biggest game of his life when Bafana Bafana face South Korea in a do-or-die affair on Thursday morning.
SA will face the Koreans in the FIFA World Cup final Group A match at the Monterrey Stadium in Mexico. Bafana are against the ropes, and they need a victory to keep their hopes in the tournament alive. A loss or a draw against the Asians will result in coach Hugo Broos’ players packing their bags and coming back home.
Mofokeng’s opportunity of starting is high after Broos’ midfield nerve centres Themba Zwane and Teboho Mokoena were suspended and will miss the match. There have been outcries, especially after the first match against Mexico, for Broos to field the twinkle-toed Mofokeng. But Broos decided to use him sparingly, and Mofokeng came in as a substitute and turned on the heat.
Khumalo likes Broos’s approach
Khumalo, who spoke to Sunday World on behalf of 10bet, says that he likes the way Broos has managed the 21-year-old and did not throw him in the deep end.
“I like the approach of Broos. I like the idea behind what he’s doing in terms of managing the games,” said Khumalo.
“As a manager, you really have to step up when it comes to these situations because when you manage the player, you’re developing him instead of throwing him into the deep end. I think Hugo Broos might have probably had other options that nobody knows here in South Africa. But from where I’m seated, I think he was waiting for that moment, for him to be introduced.
‘You don’t just throw a player into the deep end’
“He actually surprised me against a very physical Czech team. I looked at them and thought, ‘was it like that when I was still playing?’ I wondered what Mofokeng was going to do. Will he be able to manage the game and manoeuvre within the game? And he was. He surprised me. I think the coach was waiting for that right moment because you don’t just throw a player into the deep end, especially when the team is chasing the game and they’re really in need of a result.
“You look at Mofokeng’s posture, he’s just a skinny young boy, and how Hugo managed the game for him, I think he got it all right. Now he has an idea, this is what we call footballing problems.
“Before they went to the World Cup, he mentioned that the position that Mofokeng used to play in Bafana Bafana was the wrong position for him because he used to play him as a winger. He tried him against Panama game, prior to the World Cup and he has played him as a number 10, and this is when he started discovering the position.
‘Might be answer against Korea’
“So he might be the answer against Korea. He might be the answer for the number 10 position because he changed the game against Czechia. When he came on, wow! What a performance from the youngster.
“I must say that he’s unbelievable and he has a big heart because he managed to hold on. He managed to change the game because this is what subs are supposed to do. He’s one of the players that I believe we are pinning our hopes on that he will come to the party and give us his best performance. I wouldn’t want to put him under pressure because this is his first World Cup, and he’s still young, but what a prospect.”
Doctor Khumalo was chatting to Sunday World on behalf of 10bet
Read More:
- One of the best footballers South Africa (SA) has ever produced, Doctor Khumalo believes Relebohile Mofokeng could play the biggest game of his life when Bafana Bafana face South Korea in a do-or-die affair on Thursday morning.
- SA will face the Koreans in the FIFA World Cup final Group A match at the Monterrey Stadium in Mexico.
- Bafana are against the ropes, and they need a victory to keep their hopes in the tournament alive.
- A loss or a draw against the Asians will result in coach Hugo Broos’ players packing their bags and coming back home.
- Mofokeng’s opportunity of starting is high after Broos’ midfield nerve centres Themba Zwane and Teboho Mokoena were suspended and will miss the match.
One of the best footballers
SA will face the Koreans in the FIFA World Cup final Group A match at the Monterrey Stadium in Mexico. Bafana are against the ropes, and they need a victory to keep their hopes in the tournament alive. A loss or a draw against the Asians will result in coach Hugo Broos' players packing their bags and coming back home.
“I like the approach of Broos. I like the idea behind what he's doing in terms of managing the games,” said
“As a manager, you really have to step up when it comes to these situations because when you manage the player, you’re developing him instead of throwing him into the deep end. I think Hugo Broos might have probably had other options that nobody knows here in
“He actually surprised me against a very physical Czech team. I looked at them and thought, ‘was it like that when I was still playing?’ I wondered what
“You look at
“Before they went to the World Cup, he mentioned that the position that
“So he might be the answer against Korea. He might be the answer for the number 10 position because he changed the game against Czechia. When he came on, wow! What a performance from the youngster.
“I must say that he's unbelievable and he has a big heart because he managed to hold on. He managed to change the game because this is what subs are supposed to do. He's one of the players that I believe we are pinning our hopes on that he will come to the party and give us his best performance. I wouldn't want to put him under pressure because this is his first World Cup, and he's still young, but what a prospect."
Doctor
Read More:
