Broos surprised how quickly Bafana players have adapted

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is pleasantly surprised by how quickly his players have adapted to his methods and secured a strong bid for a place in 2022’s Fifa World Cup in Qatar.

The 69-year-old Belgian was hired in May but could not get started in the job as he had to return home for his second Covid-19 vaccination soon after his appointment.

He knuckled down to work in September ahead of the start of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers and has presided over a huge transformation that has seen Bafana Bafana surge to the top of a qualifying group that also includes Ghana, Ethiopia and Zambia.

Broos admitted he was as surprised as many others by their rapid metamorphosis.

“Maybe you will be surprised that I’m surprised we are now in this position [top of the group],” he said.

“Three months ago, I think if you had said to someone we will be first [in the group] before the 2022 games, everybody would have laughed.

“We did a fantastic job until now.

“I took a chance on players and made choices.

“Sometimes my choices were not good and certainly when you see the 23 players [in camp], you can see they’ve changed during the games in the past few months.

“It was very difficult for me to make the selections because I did not know so much about SA football.

“Now I know much more about them [the players] and I think what we are doing now — and while I like players like [Keagan] Dolly who were with Bafana and suddenly were not there — has worked out.”

Broos also reiterated his unhappiness that the World Cup qualifier between Ethiopia and second-placed group rivals Ghana will be played at the Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg this week. ​

Bafana Bafana had to work hard to beat Ethiopia 3-1 on a disastrous pitch at the Bahir Dar Stadium in October and Broos hoped Ghana would also be confronted by the same difficulties when they faced the East Africans in the penultimate round of the group qualifiers this week.

But Fifa and the Confederation of African Football said the venue did not meet acceptable standards to host Ghana, and moved the game to the Orlando Stadium at Ethiopia’s request.

“This is not fair,” an upset Broos said.

“Two countries played in that stadium [Bafana and Zimbabwe] in very bad location, very bad stadium, very bad pitch and we had to do it [beat Ethiopia under difficult circumstances].

“Lucky for us we did it.

“With Zimbabwe, it was a very important game for them too [having lost 0-1 in September].

“Now suddenly Ghana can play their game [against Ethiopia] in a paradise [at the Orlando Stadium].”

Bafana are one point ahead of Ghana in their World Cup qualifying group and need to beat Zimbabwe at home on Thursday, and then perhaps get a point away against the West Africans on Sunday.

The winner of the group will play a play-off against one of the nine other group winners in Caf qualifiers.