Low-ranked opposition served purpose for Bafana's Afcon ambitions: Broos

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says though the teams South Africa played in their preparation for the 2023 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers against Liberia are low-ranked, they provided the right kind of test for the coming matches.

South Africa can qualify for next year's Nations Cup in Ivory Coast with four points gained in their home and away qualifiers against Liberia in March. 

Bafana have notched up positive results, winning the first three of four international friendlies that serve as preparation for the games against Liberia. Their 2-1 victory against Mozambique at Mbombela Stadium on Thursday night followed wins against Sierra Leone (4-0) and Botswana (1-0) in Johannesburg in September.

Broos's team will look to extend that to four wins in succession when they host Angola at Mbombela Stadium on Sunday (3pm).

Even if they do, the quality of the teams they have beaten will raise questions.

All four opponents in the friendlies have not come close to qualifying for the Fifa World Cup and are not regulars at Nations Cup finals tournaments.

Broos said the opposition were chosen with the aim of boosting Bafana's confidence after their losses to France and Morocco and because they play a similar style and level of football to Liberia.

“I think we have achieved our goal and what we wanted to see,” Broos said.

“This is a team that is winning and by winning you have confidence. Therefore I know these opponents are not at the top of [football in] Africa but on the other side, certainly Mozambique and Angola are similar teams to Liberia.

“Liberia are likely to come [to SA] and not play offensively. They will play behind the ball and try to be dangerous with a breakout.”

“The games of Thursday and Sunday are a test for that. They are good friendly games to help us know what can be dangerous from those countries and how we are going to deal with that.”

Broos is likely to make a few changes to his starting line-up for the clash against Angola as there are players who could do with a rest.

“We don’t have to forget that the [schedule] last three weeks has been tough for some clubs,” he said.

“There have been MTN8 semifinals, the final and the Carling Cup. There are guys who played last week and it will be their fourth game in one week against Angola.

“We have to be careful with that. We don’t have to overload them too much and therefore there will be changes in the team.

“That gives an opportunity to the guys who didn’t play on Thursday to show their qualities and give a good performance that I will not forget when selecting the team for March.

“This is also important because every team is strong because of its bench.”

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