Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says he will use the two upcoming friendly internationals to sharpen his players for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers starting in June.
But Bafana Bafana will play the two matches without talisman Percy Tau who has been dropped from the team due to an injury.
South Africa will face Guinea in Belgium on Friday, before facing world champions France in two much anticipated friendly games.
Broos says despite experiencing a lot of challenges in the past few weeks, he’s looking forward to the two matches.
The team has already arrived in Belgium for the first fixture after spending almost a week in Lille, France, for the preparations.
Since the announcement of the two opponents for Bafana Bafana, Broos has continuously emphasised the importance of playing against strong opposition.
Guinea will be South Africa’s first test this evening. Both nations come into the fixture on the back of failing to qualify for the World Cup. However, Guinea competed at the recent AFCON in Cameroon.
For Broos, it’s about the depth in the West African side which he believes will be a required challenge for Bafana Bafana.
“It’s a team with only with players playing in Europe, they played in AFCON and this is what we need to feel what we need to do in the future to become better this is not the kind of football we play in Africa so it’s a good experience for us and again don’t look too much at the result in the two games but the performance that counts.”
Players exposure
Broos is not too concerned about the result but is more focused on getting the right performance from the players. The idea behind the two international friendlies was also to get the players exposure at the highest level. This will help bridge the gap between them and the powerhouses on the continent.
“For us, the only thing we can do is learn and I’m excited to be part of the group and I think the best to learn is by doing and by playing a team like France and what world-class players are like and we can learn from that,” says Bafana Bafana player, Lyle Foster.
The matches will also be used as preparation. It’s one of the reasons why the coach will give all his players an opportunity to get game time.
“The purpose of these games is to give every player who is in the selection minutes to play I want to see everyone in those two games because it’s very important for the important games in June AFCON qualifiers so there for our friendly matches training matches.”
There have been four previous clashes between Bafana Bafana and Guinea. South Africa has gone unbeaten in all of them and has not conceded either.
