OPINION: Botswana snub could come back to haunt Bafana’s Broos

It will be fascinating to see what Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has to say about Bafana Bafana’s opposition, when he names his squad on Thursday for friendlies against Sierra Leone and Botswana later this month.

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It was only March, you see, when Broos name-checked Botswana, and not in a good way, when explaining why he was happy Bafana had secured friendlies against Guinea and world champions France.

“We needed stronger opposition,” said Broos at the time.

“Now we have two games against the world champions and against Guinea, who played in the Afcon and have very good players, all from Europe.

“We can learn a lot, if we lose twice ok, but what we can evaluate from those games is ten times more than if we played Botswana.”

So when Bafana play Botswana on September 27, do we safely assume Broos expects to learn ten times less than he did in a 5-0 hammering by France in March?

For Botswana these comments can only serve as motivation, while for Broos, this should really serve as a lesson that casting aspersions on playing less-fancied sides can humble you quickly.

Admittedly Broos’ comments in March were somewhat based on a difficult upcoming Afcon qualifier against Morocco. Bafana’s next qualifiers are against Liberia in March, an easier side to play on paper. But it still wasn’t necessary to make such comparisons, especially when Bafana are hardly world-beaters. 

Will the Bafana head coach backtrack on his comments a few months ago, given that the opposite might just be admitting that he can’t see the point in playing Botswana, a side ranked 146^th in the world? 

Even Sierra Leone, ranked 113^th, perhaps do not sit highly on Broos’ list of desired opposition.

The truth of the matter is that who you play in international friendlies can be a lottery, depending largely on the availability of opposition at the time. 

This is particularly true for South Africa at home in the middle of a European club season, with many countries presumably simply not prepared to fly their players across the globe. 

There was talk of Bafana playing Egypt at some point, but this has not materialised, and Broos is left with Sierra Leone and Botswana, like it or not. Today’s press conference should be one to watch.