Bafana’s Broos denies mistake with Mothwa selection

Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has refused to accept he made a mistake selecting Veli Mothwa in goal for South Africa in their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying 2-2 draw with Uganda on Friday at Orlando Stadium.

Broos had to find a replacement for captain and regular number one Ronwen Williams, who is out injured. And he chose Mothwa ahead of SuperSport United’s Ricardo Goss and Orlando Pirates Sipho Chaine, even though the 33 year-old had yet to play a competitive match this season.

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The move backfired as Mothwa’s blunder in the second half, spilling Rogers Mato’s effort into his own net, nearly cost Bafana all three points. Thalente Mbatha came off the bench to grab a late equaliser, but a point at home still wasn’t the best way for Bafana to get their AFCON qualifying campaign up and running.

Broos, however, didn’t want to dwell on what could have been.

“This is something you can say now (about Mothwa), maybe you should have done this or that.” Broos told SABC Sport after the match.

“But maybe if we started with the team from the second half, and it was the same game, you would say ‘why do we not use the guys who normally play?’”

The Bafana head coach did believe that his side tired in the second half, because of a lack of game many players have had, with the Betway Premiership only starting after this international break.

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After Lyle Foster had given Bafana an early lead, they failed to kill off the match and Uganda capitalised after the break.

‘Uganda were sharper’

“Uganda were sharper than us and we know why,” said Broos.

“Players in our team have ot had enough competitive games. We saw that in the second half … we gave two goals away.

“(But) what we showed after we went 2-1 down is what we wanted to see … a draw is better than a defeat.”