‘We’ll see the best of Tau’: Broos convinced Percy on the road back for Bafana

Percy Tau has a future with Bafana Bafana despite many supporters not always being impressed with his performances in the national team jersey.

This was a view of Bafana coach Hugo Broos after Tau returned to the national team to help them beat Lesotho 2-0 their 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Friday. The win, achieved through Relebohile Mofokeng (60th) and Jayden Adams' (64th) quick-fire goals, leaves Bafana top of group C on 10 points, two ahead of Benin, who South Africa meet in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Tuesday (6pm). 

A win at Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny would leave Broos' team in a strong position after six rounds, with four matches left to play. The winners of the nine groups progress to the first 48-team World Cup in Mexico, Canada and the US, with the four best runners-up going into a playoff.

Tau had moments in which he lost possession cheaply in Friday's match in Polokwane and that didn't go down well with the sold-out crowd, with some even indicating to the coach he should substitute the forward.

But Broos defended Tau afterwards and said his move from Egyptian giants Al Ahly to Qatar FC has brought back a spark to the player, and it's matter of time before he rediscovers his form for Bafana.

“I said it before that we couldn't be happy with the performances of Percy in the previous games,” Broos said.

“That was not the level of Percy and [on Friday] you can tell he played a fantastic game, and he worked a lot. And that is because now he's used to playing games [at club level again]. When you don't have those games and the rhythm then you can't do that.

“I'm sure that more and more we'll see the best of Percy again because he's playing now in Qatar. OK, it can always be more and when I'm honest I think we can expect more, but I'm very happy with his performance because he worked a lot for team.”

Indeed, despite a few mistakes Tau was vital in Bafana breaking the deadlock via Mofokeng on the hour mark. He eliminated a few players before passing to Elias Mokwana, who further opened the Lesotho defence before provided the assist the 20-year-old Orlando Pirates attacker.

Lesotho have been the shock performers of group C. It was the national team from the tiny landlocked country that threw a major spanner in favourite Nigeria's campaign with an opening draw in West Africa. The Super Eagles have not been able to recover despite the appointment of former Mali coach Eric Chelle in January and, after Friday's 2-0 away win against Rwanda, remain rooted in fourth place on six points. 

The Super Eagles are sure, though, to make a charge in their remaining five games (starting at home against Zimbabwe), so Broos will want his team to keep winning to preserve the gap.

The win over Lesotho was predictably not easy as Bafana battled to score for an hour before Mofokeng planted the ball beyond Likuena goalkeeper Sekhoane Moerane's reach. Broos said the halftime talk was fairly intense after Bafana squandered at least four good chances to take the lead in the first half.

“There were a few details that made us come out of the dressing room better than we were in the first half. It was a question of positioning, also when we lost the ball we had to react immediately. 

“In the first half we had some moments where the reaction was not immediate. We didn't have the second ball in the first half and there were three, four or five times that there was a long ball from us and [Lesotho] gained possession in the midfield where there was a desert. Nobody was there.

“We changed some things at half time, but what makes me happy about this group [of players] is, as I said before, when you ask them to do something they'll try to do it. In some cases, they succeed and here we did it immediately when there was more pressure [to score].

“It was very difficult for Lesotho to do something [after the break]. It was finished. They kicked the ball out and this is sometimes the detail about the positioning — we did it well in the second half and I was very happy with it.

“In certain moments you start to doubt it, [like] when the ball hits the posts and we create [but miss] chances. It was like there was a wall in the goals and we couldn't go through. But when there's so much pressure the goal has to come and I'm happy we got it and the second was nearly immediately after that.”

Broos praised the people of Limpopo for packing the venue in support of Bafana. 

“I want to thank the crowd and I'm happy to see we played the game in front of a full house. It means the South Africans are starting to love this Bafana Bafana team. I said in the past that the crowd is very important and certainly when you have difficult games, and today it was a difficult game. 

“OK, we won, we dominated the 90 minutes; they didn't have any chance to score but on the other side you have to [score] and in the first half we had four good chances and we couldn't. Sometimes in a game like that you can score and lose points. But yes, when you see the crowd today, they supported us, and they pushed us to score goals.”