Bafana Bafana’s remarkable transformation under Hugo Broos, a 69-year-old Belgian who was not really a first choice for the job when he was appointed in May, will come under the toughest scrutiny at the Cape Coast Stadium against nemesis Ghana tonight.
The Group G tie is the last in the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers and Bafana must avoid defeat to go through to the third round, which is where it will be determined whether Broos’s team qualifies for Qatar.
Bafana had a similar situation under Broos’s predecessor, Molefi Ntseki, in March when they had to avoid defeat away against Sudan but lost 2-0 which meant they will not be one of the 24 teams at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Cameroon next year.
With Broos — who was born in Humbeek and represented Belgium for 12 years (earning 24 caps between 1974 and 1986), including as part of their 1986 World Cup squad in Mexico — Bafana have won four out of five World Cup qualifiers in a row.
It’s an unprecedented run of form and victories in official matches by any Bafana coach. Broos, who has two daughters and a son and has been married to Sonia for 48 years, has put Bafana in a great position to make a fourth appearance in a World Cup.
In reality, though, there’s still a long and steeper road ahead for Bafana. Avoiding defeat against the Black Stars today will see Broos’s team facing one of the African giants in the final round.
Mali, Senegal and Morocco have already clinched their places in the final round, which will be played in March. Bafana can be one of the 10 teams in the play-offs if they avoid defeat tonight.
“To be satisfied is a dangerous thing and I never look at the past,” Broos told the Sunday Times after his brilliant start as a Bafana coach.
Ghana will be afraid of us because we’re going to them [three points] ahead.
— Bafana coach Hugo Broos
“Ghana will be afraid of us because we’re going to them [three points] ahead and because for them they have to win. There’s one solution for them to go to the next round of the qualifiers: it’s to win against us.
“So they’ll not be calm and easy, they’ll be afraid of us. This is a little advantage to us but we’ll have to do the job ourselves and we don’t have to look at the past. It’s totally another game and hopefully for us it will be successful.
“I hope we can find the way of playing like we did against Ghana [in Johannesburg in the first leg]. We played a very good game there, not that [only] the mentality was good but also the football.”
Broos’s approach when he took over the team was a complete break from what previous Bafana coaches have done — keeping his word in revamping the team with the young players.
“I had to do something,” Broos says of the changes he made.
“There were two things for me. First of all, it was the mentality of the group that I saw playing Sudan needing one point. You had to conclude that there’s no good mentality in the team.
“Secondly, the age needed to be changed because most of the players were in their 30s. I started to look for young players with a good mentality but for me the age is not important ... it’s the quality.
“If a player of 30 years has quality and can make the team better, I’ll select him. Why not? But I had to start somewhere. It’s not that I don’t like older players, but I thought we had to change something. The door is not shut for other players, not at all.”
Broos, who initially did not know that Bafana must avoid any kind of defeat against Ghana tonight to win the group, has already made changes to his team by bringing in Kaizer Chiefs’ Keagan Dolly, and Thibang Phethe and Sphephelo Sithole who are based in Portugal.
Cape Town City players Mduduzi Mdantsane and Fagrie Lakay are also part of those changes but many still feel Bafana lack the dynamism of the likes of Themba Zwane, Andile Jali, Lyle Lakay and Rivaldo Coetzee, all from SA champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
Dolly and Phethe featured strongly in the team that beat Zimbabwe 1-0 on Thursday for Bafana to remain three points clear going into tonight’s match. But Broos remains cautious about Bafana’s chances even if they win their group.
The Afcon of 2023 and the World Cup of 2026 are the targets. If I don’t go to these tournaments I would have failed as a coach
— Hugo Broos
Knowing his team’s limitations, Broos is prepared for any outcome in this World Cup qualifying campaign and wants everyone to accept that he’s still in the rebuilding phase of his mission with Bafana.
“If we don’t succeed in qualifying for Qatar, it’s not a disaster but it will be a disappointment,” says Broos. “Maybe the disappointment will be more than two months ago because we’re on top of the group, but it will not be a disaster.
“The Afcon of 2023 and the World Cup of 2026 are the targets. If I don’t go to these tournaments I would have failed as a coach.”
Broos, who exercises regularly to keep in shape and drinks a bit of wine or beer when he’s relaxing, cautioned people against making bookings to Qatar before they see the outcome of the game against Ghana tonight and the play-off match in March.
“The truth is that we’re first in the group and that’s it. We don’t have anything for the moment.
“If now you’re going to make the reservations for the World Cup in Qatar, I think it’s a little bit too early. We have to enjoy what we have now really. We have to be proud, we have to be happy and I feel everyone is happy.
“I’m walking on the street [and hear] ‘Hey, coach, it’s great’. Everybody is happy and it makes me happy also. But we don’t have anything at the moment because we still have to play the next round even if we win this group.”
THE PERMUTATIONS ACCORDING TO FIFA AND CAF RULES IN WC QUALIFIERS
If two teams finish on the same number of points, these are the first three key criteria considered to determine the group winners:
(a) Greatest number of points obtained in all group matches (b) Goal difference in all group matches (c) Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches
Note: If Ghana beat Bafana, by any margin, even 1-0, they would have scored more goals than Bafana and rule (c) will see them through.
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