Hugo Broos counts on Bafana’s mentality in World Cup qualifier

The mentality Bafana Bafana showed in their second group match against Namibia at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast earlier in 2024 is what coach Hugo Broos expects when his side play Zimbabwe in a 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier at the Free State Stadium on Tuesday.

There’s a long history of Bafana lowering their guard, losing or drawing matches when facing unheralded opposition in qualifiers.

Broos learnt this the hard way in a 2023 Afcon qualifier against Liberia at Orlando Stadium in March 2023, when his team gave away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2.

Facing a Zimbabwe team that looks there for the taking after they lost 2-0 to lowly Lesotho at Orlando Stadium on Friday, Broos said he wants to see Bafana maintain the same mentality they showed in their 1-1 draw against Nigeria in Uyo on Friday.

But more importantly, the 72-year-old Belgian said he would be delighted to see Bafana approaching Zimbabwe with the same mentality they displayed in their second game at Afcon, when they beat Namibia 4-0 after they had started the tournament with a 2-0 loss to Mali.

“I think it’s not so difficult [to see the change in mentality] if you saw the way we played at Afcon and the we played against Algeria [in a friendly in March] and when we played now [Friday] in difficult circumstances against Nigeria.

“There’s now a good mentality in the team. This is not a team any more of Liberia and this was only one year ago. It’s not enough to have the quality you also need to have the right mentality.

“I’m not worried about that [slack mentality] any more. I was worried about that months ago,” Broos said when he addressed the media at the match venue on Monday.

Broos recalls that it was Zimbabwe he faced in his first match as a Bafana coach in September 2021 when Bafana were trying to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

In that match, which ended in 0-0, Bafana lost two valuable points that could have helped them to make the play-offs for the qualifiers. In the end Bafana were to regret those two lost points when they lost 1-0 away to Ghana in the final group match when they needed a point to make the final play-offs.

Zimbabwe are at the bottom of Group C with two points after their loss to Lesotho. The Warriors started their campaign with two draws against Rwanda and Nigeria.

Broos said Bafana need to capitalise on the fact that they played seven home matches in these qualifiers instead of five as Zimbabwe and Lesotho will play their home matches in SA because they have no stadiums approved by Fifa to host international matches.

After a gruelling journey to and from Nigeria, Broos was happy to report on Monday that every player was available for Zimbabwe though there was a slight concern about attacker Percy Tau who didn’t finish the match against Nigeria.

“We’ve had three nights of sleep and there shouldn’t be any excuse for Tuesday’s match. Everyone is rested and fresh and I expect the team to collect three points.”