How Broos’s halftime ‘hairdryer’ sparked Bafana back into life against Angola

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos was not in a position to share the unprintable words he uttered to his players in the locker during his halftime rollicking as he tried to wake them from their first-half slumber against Angola.

Lyle Foster’s long-range beauty in the 79th minute earned South Africa a 2-1 opening Africa Cup of Nations Group B win at Marrakesh Stadium on Monday night, but they had to work for every inch of the result against a tough Angola — and Broos was not happy with his side’s opening 45 minutes.

Bafana started the match brightly with a goal from Oswin Appollis in the 21st minute, but they lost cohesion and allowed Angola to claw their way back with the equaliser from Manuel Cafumana, known as Show, 14 minutes later.

The teams went to the break with Angola on the ascendancy and looking the most likely to score the next goal, but Broos’s “hairdryer” in the change room sparked Bafana back to life, and they were much better after the restart.

The game was an even battle in the second half, though Bafana controlled far more of the play, but the most important thing from a South African perspective was Foster, who has been under a measure of pressure from supporters, scored the stunning winner, having battled until then.

South Africa maintained their record of having not lost to Angola at the Afcon finals in five matches and stretched their unbeaten record to 27 matches.

The mission of three points has been accomplished and this will serve as a huge morale-booster given their next match is against seven-time champions Egypt on Boxing Day on Friday in the coastal city of Agadir (4pm in Morocco, 5pm SA time).

Both teams won their opening matches after the Pharaohs came from a goal down to beat Zimbabwe 2-1 at the death in the later match on Monday at the Adrar Stadium.

“You always know when you start a tournament that players try to feel how things are going, and we played against a team that plays differently than an average African team,” Broos said after Bafana’s nervy opener, where his side’s grit ultimately prevailed in the face of an Angolan onslaught.

“This is not African football they are playing; it is technical and passing football — and there is also power in them. For us, maybe we were a bit surprised with the goal we scored early in the game and we thought things were done.

“We had a wake-up call and my voice was a bit louder than usual in the locker room at halftime — and you saw the reaction in the second half. I know these guys and this will never happen again.”

Broos said things could have been bad for Bafana had Angola used the period when they dominated to score more goals.

“It was lucky we won this game because there was no damage, but this can’t happen again. They cannot have the feeling that when they start the game it will be easy. But I am happy they got the wake-up call and we won the game.”

Bafana had an early goal by substitute Tshepang Moremi overruled by VAR, a decent penalty shout turned down when Khuliso Mudau was clattered down and saw Mbekezeli Mbokazi’s thunderous strike crash into the crossbar in a far more fluent second half.

In the lead-up to the match, Broos spoke about the importance of starting Group B on a good note.

“Losing the first game puts you in trouble, so we avoided that. We started the game well by scoring the goal, but I don’t know for which reason, suddenly we fell asleep and allowed Angola in the game.

“Angola were dangerous, played better combinations and we suffered because there was no aggression and passion from our side after we scored the goal. We played slowly and in those situations you feel there will be a goal from the opponent — and it came.

“We didn’t find our game. We put something right during halftime. I thought Tshepang Moremi played well — he was quick and he was a threat for the Angola defence. We started to put more pressure on the opponent.

“We had some chances: Moremi scored but it was offside, there was that shot from Mbekezeli Mbokazi and I was thinking maybe it was not our day. But we had that fantastic goal of Lyle.

“We are happy with the victory and now we can go to the game with Egypt on Friday with different circumstances than if we had lost this opening match.”