Broos ‘will play Rayners’ and a full-strength Bafana against Algeria

Hugo Broos did his experimenting against Andorra and will play an effective full-strength line-up in Bafana Bafana’s second friendly of the month against hosts Algeria in Algiers on Tuesday night, the coach said on Sunday.

The Bafana coach said 28-year-old Stellenbosch FC striker Iqraam Rayners will start and get a chance to prove himself upfront after Khanyisa Mayo made little impression in Thursday’s 1-1 draw against 164th-ranked Andorra in Annaba.

Broos, though, is hoping Burnley striker Lyle Foster’s absence over mental health issues and the injury to Evidence Makgopa, who impressed in Foster’s absence as South Africa won bronze at the Africa Cup of Nations last month, will be resolved by the time his team play crucial World Cup qualifiers in June.

Broos, after the late arrival of the seven Mamelodi Sundowns players due to a 2-0 Nedbank Cup win against Maritzburg United they played on Sunday, fielded most of his experimental introductions he has taken to play in the Fifa Series matches in the game against Andorra.

He said against 43rd-ranked Algeria, who beat 86th-ranked Bolivia 3-2 on Friday at the 40,000-seat Stade Nelson Mandela, where they also meet Bafana (11pm SA time), the time for experimenting will be over.

Broos had bemoaned lacking a striker who could bury the chances Bafana created against Andorra.

“Yes, OK, but this has been a problem for several years already in South African football, that we don’t really have the big scorer, even when there are guys who score rather easily in the local competition,” the coach said.

“You see [Khanyisa] Mayo with eight goals, [Iqraam] Rayners also has something like that so we’ll see about Iqraam on Tuesday. He will play.

“But everybody has to know that those international games are one or two levels higher than PSL games and it’s not so easy to score.

“On the other hand we have to recognise that there are three strikers not there — Evidence Makgopa, Lebo Mothiba and Lyle Foster.

“So there are some things to wait for. And I hope those players will — though maybe not Mothiba — be ready in June because those games are more important.

“And we proved already at Afcon that we can score. But last Thursday we had too many chances and did not score from enough of them.”

Broos said he will field most of his front-line players against Algeria, a team beginning a new era under 60-year-old Bosnian-born Swiss coach Vladimir Petković after Djamel Belmadi, who won the 2019 Nations Cup, stepped down after the Fennec Foxes’ shock group stage exit in Ivory Coast.

“There will be a lot of changes,” the Bafana coach said.

“I have looked at both games and I think Thursday’s game was the best opportunity to give those young guys a chance — it was not such a difficult opponent even though the game was difficult.

“But if you compare Andorra with Algeria there is a lot of difference in quality so we need to put our best team on Tuesday and cannot afford to do experiments again.

“It will be a totally different team. Also the players who did not get a run on Thursday will not be tired, will be fresh, and we will need it.”

The matches in Algeria are serving as preparation for Bafana's 2026 World Cup group C qualifiers in June against Nigeria away and Zimbabwe at home.