Don’t Criticise If We Lose – Broos
South Africa national men’s team coach Hugo Broos has called on the football fraternity to desist from criticising Bafana Bafana if the team loses against Morocco on Saturday. The already qualified Bafana Bafana play the World Cup semifinalists at the iconic FNB Stadium in a 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier dead rubber.
“Don’t start criticising if we lose. What happened against France last year was not honest, was not fair. We played last year against a team which was world champion, we play again now against a team that was third in the World Cup,” stressed Broos during a press conference ahead of the game.
Morocco made it to the semifinals of the FIFA World Cup, a feat no other African team has ever achieved. Hugo Broos wants South Africans to take note of this before coming down on Bafana Bafana like it was after the France game.
“It means this team is strong and when you see player by player, they all play in big teams. I read today, for example, that Amrabat is going to Barcelona. So that means you have high quality players but testing ourselves against those players is very important for our team,” explained Broos.
It is highly unlikely that South African football fans will take heed of Broos’ plea with social media likes and retweets seemingly more important than honest debate. A win will only add more pressure on the coach’s preparations for AFCON in Ivory Coast.
“If we win, don’t think we have a world-class team. This is not true either. It will be good, it should give us a boost if we could win against Morocco but again, this is not the moment to say we have a big team. No,” warned Broos at the team gathered at the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Center.
The South African Football Association, SAFA, dropped the prices of tickets in the hope to get more fans in the 90 000-seater and it remains to be seen if there will be more people than orange seats come Saturday the 17th of June.
