Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos was pleased with the strong opposition that has been arranged for his team’s two international friendlies.
Speaking during the squad announcement for the upcoming two international friendly matches, the coach says he wants Bafana Bafana to consistently play tough opposition so that they can enhance the level of experience the players have.
South Africa will play Guinea and France later this month.
The last time Bafana Bafana played strong opposition in an international friendly was against Paraguay in 2018.
Almost four years later, Broos will have the opportunity to measure his players against the World Champions.
France are the type of opposition that the current Bafana Bafana coach would appreciate to play against. He believes the competition will see his side better prepared for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Bafana Bafana will start with the qualifiers later in the year.
“It is not important what the result will be, what is important [is] that we play against a much stronger team. We will learn a lot from that game because you saw against Ghana the way they treated us from the beginning, they were aggressive [and] we did not have an answer. That is because we are not used to strong opponents,” says Broos.
Most of Bafana’s matches have been against African opposition, and mostly AFCON and World Cup qualifiers.
While some of them have been tough nations, others have not been ideal opposition and did not test Bafana Bafana enough.
France are third on the FIFA World Rankings, while the Guinea side boasts players that play in Europe.
“I’m told that in the past they [Bafana] were playing little and small team. This is not good for the team. So we need to have strong opponents [such as] Ivory Coast [and] Burkina Faso. But at the end, we received an invitation from France. [We are] happy with that and Guinea played well during AFCON,” adds Broos.
The Bafana coach reduced his squad to 23 players from the initial 29-man preliminary squad.
The coach selected 10 players that are currently active in the CAF club tournaments.
He says that will improve the quality of the national team.
The Belgian mentor was also pleased with the performances of the South African teams in club continental competitions.
Coach Hugo Broos has announced the 23-man Bafana Bafana squad to play against Guinea on 25 March @ 7pm & France on 29 March at 10pm. We’re proud to announce that both matches will be live on SABC Sport Channel on DTT,SABC 1, S3, Openview 124 & on TelkomONE & SABC Radio Stations! pic.twitter.com/MqoamwmjUu
— SABC Sport (@SPORTATSABC) March 14, 2022
