Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has praised Themba Zwane's influence in the national team after his goal earned the team a 1-1 draw against 2024 AFCON hosts Cote d'Ivoire.
Bafana had a lacklustre showing against Eswatini in a goalless draw last Friday but responded with a big performance against Ivory Coast on Tuesday evening in Abidjan, where Zwane gave South Africa the lead within the first nine minutes before the Elephants equalised in the second stanza through Sabastien Haller.
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Zwane was one of the outstanding players for Bafana, with his guile and trickery on the ball making it difficult for Ivory Coast's players to contain him.
Broos says when he initially omitted "Mshishi" from his squad early in his reign of the national team, he wanted to see the pool of the young players but once he recalled the Mamelodi Sundowns captain, his influence was so big that he changed the way the team plays.
"First of all we know that Themba (Zwane) is a very good player, even when in the beginning I was in South Africa he was not in the selection but I explained that it was his age at that moment, we were building a new team at that moment," Broos said in a post-match press conference.
"For me it was important to know what young players we have but once Themba was there, the way of playing changed. When we can reach Themba, this is very important, you see the difference between last Friday and today (against Ivory Coast).
"This is somebody who sees where he has to put the ball, to ask for the ball, so I don't have to tell him anything. The only thing I'm asking him for every game is to try to have the ball as much as possible, because this is important for us," he said.
The Belgian went on and revealed that he could feel in their training sessions in Ivory Coast that his players were fired up to make a positive reaction after the goalless draw against Sihlangu Semnikati.
"I felt already on Sunday and in training that the attitude of the players that they want to give a reaction and the reaction was certainly there. We didn't talk so much about the game on Friday, we focused everything on this game and I'm very happy that the boys listened to what we said, what we asked and they did it on the pitch," he added.
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