Bafana coach Broos says they must beat Namibia, admits they were not good enough against Mali

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says they must win against Namibia on Sunday to keep alive their chances of staying at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon). 

South Africa lost their opening match of the tournament with a 2-0 defeat to Mali at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium in Korhogo on Tuesday, which Broos attributed to Percy Tau’s early penalty miss and lack of physical strength. 

Bafana started with promise in the first half but were overpowered by the physicality of Mali after the restart, who scored two quick goals from captain Hamari Traore and Lassine Sinayoko in the 60th and 66th minutes respectively. 

“I want to congratulate my team for the performance, I think we lost the game because of two facts. The first was missing the penalty and the second was the physical power of Mali in the second half,” Broos said as Bafana lay at the bottom of Group E. 

“Those were reasons that made us lose the game. It was not the performance of South Africa, which was good. I think if we scored that penalty, it could have made the difference. 

“But this is just comments after the game and it doesn't change the result. We had chances and missed the penalty. They were stronger in duels in the second half and we couldn’t play our normal game anymore.  

“That was because of the power of Mali. Our performance was good but not good enough.” 

Against Namibia, Bafana are going to find a team that is highly motivated after they produced a gallant performance to stun Tunisia 1-0, and they registered their first win of the tournament also on Tuesday. 

“If you don't win that game against Namibia, you are in a bad situation. That’s why it was important to have a good result against Mali. Now we play against Namibia and we have to win that game. 

“If we have a draw, it will be difficult to go through to the group stages, so we have to win that game.” 

Broos said he was confident they can win the game against the Brave Warriors of Namibia who have players like Deon Hotto, Peter Shalulile, Loyd Kazapua and Lubeni Haukongo who play in the DStv Premiership. 

“We can win that game, it is another opponent and I will tell the boys just to go on like they played against Mali. If they do that, I am sure we can win the game against Namibia.  

“We didn’t have enough strength against Mali and you saw that in the second half. They played closer to the man, they make faults, they kicked and they did everything. 

“We didn’t have an answer to that because we don’t have those kind of players.” 

Broos defended striker Evidence Makgopa. 

“I don’t think the game of Makgopa was bad. You saw in the second half with those two giants in cenral defence, they used their power. We have to be honest that this is something that we don’t do in South Africa.”