Broos welcomes capacity crowd for Ivory Coast showdown

Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Brooss belives it will be a good experience for Bafana Bafana to play in front of 40 000 spectators at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan on Tuesday evening.

South Africa will take on the Ivory Coast in an international friendly, and the atmosphere is likely to give the side an idea of what to expect at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals, which will be hosted by the Ivorians.

The crowd will also likely contrast with the almost empty stadium in front of which Bafana Bafana played out a goalless draw with Swaziland on Friday.

‘A very good team’

“Cote D’Ivoire is a very good team, with very good players, for me they are one of the candidates to win the Afcon next year,” said Broos on Monday at the pre-match press conference.

“So it is a great experience for us to play that team. We need such games in preparation for the Afcon and it will also be a very good experience to play again in a full stadium. We are not used to that, we only had 200 spectators on Friday, and there will be 40 000 (on Tuesday) so it will be a great experience for us.”

Broos also offered his congratulations to the Springboks for beating France in Paris on Sunday to reach the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup.

“I want to congratulate the rugby team for reaching the semifinals of the World Cup,” said the Bafana head coach.

“I saw a team with passion, a big mentality and a great team spirit and with great quality. I hope it inspired us to play our match today against Cote D’Ivoire.”