OPINION – Broos needs to decide if his Bafana players are sharp or not

One of the most refreshing themes of Hugo Broos’ tenure as Bafana Bafana head coach has been clarity of communication.

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If he disagrees with the way the Premier Soccer League are behaving (see the lack of an extended break ahead of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations), or the way PSL clubs are acting in releasing their players (see this year’s Cosafa Cup), he will say it directly.

Tell-it-how-it-is

Perhaps it’s a dropping of filters that comes with age, but the 72 year-old Belgian has a tell-it-how-it-is attitude that you don’t always see.

This week’s Bafana camp, however, has been a little muddled.

Ahead of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying Group K 2-2 draw with Uganda, the Bafana coach highlighted the lack of club football available for a lot of players in his squad.

The Betway Premiership will only kick off on September 14, so any team that did not finish in last season’s top eight had not played a single game ahead of this international week.

Broos was also worried about Mamelodi Sundowns, whose players had only taken part in the MTN8, and who had looked unconvincing as they were knocked out in the semifinals by Stellenbosch.

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For the Bafana coach, only Stellenbosch and Orlando Pirates had played enough competitive football up to now, because of their participation in the Caf Confederation Cup and Caf Champions League respectively.

Yet not one player from Pirates or Stellenbosch started Friday’s game against Uganda at Orlando Stadium.

Mixed-messaging

Broos said in his pre-match press conference on Thursday that the players he was worried about had shown in training that they were sharp enough after all. But then after the game ended in a draw, he was back talking about how his players lacked sharpness.

It was Broos who picked Veli Mothwa, a goalkeeper who had not played a game yet for AmaZulu, ahead of Pirates’ in-form Sipho Chaine. And it was Broos who only brought on Relebohile Mofokeng and Thalente Mbatha after his side had gone 2-1 down.

Mothwa’s howler led to Uganda’s second goal, and Mbatha ultimately salvaged a point for Bafana. After the game it would have been better for Broos to admit his mistakes, than to turn to an excuse about sharpness that he had already overruled.