Over the moon Broos praises two-goal hero Zwane
BAFANA coach Hugo Broos heaped praise on Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Themba Zwane after his stunning performance against bogey team Sierra Leone.
National team returnee Zwane stole the show for the hosts with a brace as Bafana powered their way past an outof-their-depth Leone Stars.
“Themba was not just good today, he was very good, and I was very happy today,” Broos said in his post-match interview. “I said already that only fools don’t change their minds. I knew he was a good player, but we started building in September with young players, and I wanted to give the young players a chance first, but he just kept improving, and maybe he was the missing link in our team.
“On the other side, it’s very important that we are careful and we don’t get very happy. This isn’t France, Ghana or Morocco, but then again the performance of Themba was very good today.”
Broos handed debut opportunities to Zakhele Lepasa, Luke Leroux and Mihlali Mayambela, who also found the back of the net. The Belgian mentor admitted there was an element of nerves on his side, as he was hoping his new-look team would do well.
“You know, there’s always something in your mind as a coach, because you’re hoping that when the game starts you’ll see what you want to see,” he said.
“It was definitely not what I saw in the last games, and I said to the players as well that this is the moment where they could start something new, and they shouldn’t spoil the moment, and they certainly didn’t do that, so I have to congratulate them.”
Sphephelo Sithole and new boy Leroux ran proceedings, affording Mshishi the opportunity to express himself fully and setting up a dominant Bafana display. Broos revealed his main priority in setting up this match against Sierra Leone, who are placed 107th in Fifa’s world ranking, was mainly to re-establish a sense of confidence within his squad ahead of the Afcon qualifiers.
“First of all, for us it was important to have an opponent that is less strong than the other ones, so we can boost our confidence,” Broos explained.
“It wasn’t only about me, but there was a lot of negativity against the national team and about me as a coach recently, so it was important for us to perform well today – and we did, scoring four goals and putting on a good performance, and hopefully we can take that into next week Tuesday.”
Bafana’s second friendly of the international break will pit them against neighbours Botswana at the FNB Stadium.