When Hugo Broos travelled with a 23-man squad to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, not many would have anticipated the veteran tactician taking Bafana Bafana the furthest they have gone in the continental showpiece in just over two decades. Talk about defying the odds. The Cote d'Ivoire adventure ended with South Africa's national side securing the bronze medal at Africa's biggest football competition. The day after the Belgian's charges received their podium gong, Soccer Laduma, through Kamogelo Motecwane, was at their team hotel together with a sizeable band of journalists to have more than just a word or two with the 2017 Afcon winner. Read on to hear the coach's thoughts on their exploits, on Lyle Foster's controversial absence from the tournament and his future plans for Bafana.
Soccer Laduma: Coach, with Bafana having finished third at tournament, how do you reflect on the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations journey?
Hugo Broos: You know, it's very difficult to find the words because I have to be honest, I did not expect what we achieved. When the draw took place for Afcon, okay we were put into a difficult group but I felt it's possible for us to progress. But then you have Morocco and then normally you're out. However, I felt the confidence in the group because we beat them a couple of months before, and then we won against Morocco. Ater that victory, I told them that we can reach the final. So, for me, it was a fantastic experience and three fantastic weeks with the group. Not only with the guys who were playing but also with those who were on the bench. And, I am very, very happy.
SL: As you allude to having had doubts about your prospects at tournament after the draw was conducted, were you also worried about the players doubting themselves as well?
HB: You know as a human being, there's a certain amount of pride you have. When there is no belief or when there are critics, I think the normal reaction is that, 'I will show them they are wrong.' I came to South Africa with something in my mind and I started thinking it from the first day. I couldn't understand why a country like this… and you saw it with the results of the national team, there was something that wasn't right. This is a country that needed to show better results than what they were producing for the last 10 years. I thought, and I was sure, that there was potential, but I didn't know so much about South African football, so I needed some time, but once I started, I began to see that it is possible. I came to South Africa to play Afcon, to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and we were close. Okay, we had to play another game (after Ghana), but the potential was there. So, this also gave me the belief to go on because there was a time, after France 5-0 and Morocco 2-1 (defeats), I was thinking about quitting. It was too much. What people said, it was too much, but okay, I've always been a winner. I wanted to go through and if I was to leave South Africa, I wanted to leave with something and then suddenly everything falls in the right position.
SL: Is there a desire to increase the specialization of your technical team?
HB: I think I am happy with my team, they are all very good guys. We have a very good medical staff. Okay, if we had two more, it would be good, but we really don't need it. We have a good video analyst, with Sine (Sinesipho Mali) – it's perfect. The relationship with me and Helman (Mkhalele), I don't have to explain it, it is fantastic, and that's also why when Cedo (Cedomir Janevski) left, I didn't want another assistant. I have a good goalkeeper coach (Grant Johnson), now with Kopano (Melesi, strength and conditioning coach). He's one year with us and this guy is a specialist. So, yeah, everything is alright. Yeah, you can always increase the level, it's true. For example, should we introduce a psychologist? I say yes, we can use this. But on the other hand, are the players open to introducing a psychologist? Because when you talk about that, immediately you have a reaction like, 'Yeah, but I'm not sick.' However, it has nothing to do with that. Yes, we could use that, but it's not crucial. It's not because that wasn't there that we didn't make the final.
SL: What's going to be your approach to the Lyle Foster issue going forward?
HB: Honestly, I'm not happy. I knew from the beginning what the issue was. I was understanding. I spoke a few times to Vincent Kompany. I really understood what the problem was. Our doctor spoke to the Burnley doctor, and we put everything together and we decided that it was not good to call him up, especially after Lyle Foster himself wrote a letter saying that he does not want to play in the Afcon. That was okay. But then he starts playing, and he plays every game 90 minutes and you don't play on a weekly basis in England, you play several games in a week. Then I sit back and ask myself, 'Why wasn't it possible for him to come with us to Ivory Coast?' And this is my frustration. I will not blame Burnley or Lyle for that, but I get frustrated when I see that because we could use him. He is a good striker, and he scores, so if we had Lyle with us, we would have been stronger. So, I'm frustrated now when I see Lyle play 70 minutes or Lyle play 90 minutes, but okay, yeah… it is what it is. It was not only Lyle, then you lose Lebo (Mothiba) as well. So, two of your starting strikers you lose just before you start Afcon, and this was not a good situation. On the other hand, I have confidence in Evidence (Makgopa), he can become a very good striker, but again, they have to work with him.
SL: Having only lost out to Nigeria on penalties, how would you have fancied your chances playing Ivory Coast in the final?
HB: I think when you look at the game of Nigeria, we played a fantastic game. Yesterday, I saw their coach after the final as we were waiting to get our medals and he came to me and we spoke briefly. He told me that, 'Coach, you made me worried there in the first half. You played very well.' I said, 'Yes, we had the chances, but we didn't score. In the second half, you had some chances to score, but us as well, two minutes before the end especially.' I say all this to say that we aren't in the final because of that. We did what we had to do and it was the penalties which decided our fate. I think if we always play like that, the way we did against Morocco, against Nigeria, I think we will qualify for the World Cup, but we need that level. We will see how we sort out that problem with Lyle, and if Lyle is ready, then you become a better team. Again, there was no particular reason we did not make it to the final. We did what we had to do and maybe the luck we had against Cape Verde, we did not have against Nigeria.
SL: Would you like to see some of the outstanding players from this Afcon play in Europe?
HB: I am very happy that there are players that will have the opportunity to play in Europe. They will get better, I'm 100% sure of it because the competition they will play in is at a higher level. Also, the intensity, coupled with the way of living, will be different. They are already good with the qualities they have, but they will become better if they can play in a big team in Europe. Not only for them, but it also gives South African football a better image, and I feel that people who come to talk to me are talking in a different way of South African football. They are now surprised that we have such a good team. They are surprised by the likes of Teboho Mokoena and Ronwen Williams, and this is something I told the players before Afcon. This is the stage where they can show how good they are, and this is very important for the football of the country. You become famous with your national team, you do not become famous with the CAF Champions League. Now they know in Europe who South Africa is. They know about Mamelodi Sundowns, but it is also important that the national team plays well. That they show themselves on a tournament like this which is followed by hundreds of millions of people, which is followed by many teams.
SL: Can we expect changes to this squad going forward?
HB: Certainly, there will be new players in March. I don't think there will be 10 new players, but there are some positions that need more attention than others. We won't have to look for a new right back, but there are some positions we will need to look (at). We will see what happens with Themba (Zwane), but even with Themba there, we need to look at somebody there to replace him. We're looking already now and I've already discussed it with Helman, so next Friday (16 February) when we are in South Africa, I'll have a meeting with him and we will look for some new players that can be invited in March, and let's hope we can find players who can help us for the World Cup qualifiers in March.
Bafana Players Speak!
While Hugo Broos might have been the master tactician that laid out the blueprint for Bafana Bafana's success at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, he still needed soldiers to execute his masterplan. The soldiers came, they (ouch, almost) conquered, and they left! Soccer Laduma was selected as part of an exclusive set of media personnel to talk to some of the main protagonists of Africa's third-best team as the national team availed Khuliso Mudau, Sphephelo Sithole and Grant Kekana for a moment with the Fourth Estate. In their mini-interviews below, the trio delve deeper into how the team managed to exceed the expectations of everybody and beat some of the best teams on the continent in order to get as far as they did at the football spectacle.
That guy is very good
Soccer Laduma: You play in the second division of Portugal, but having now played at a level as high as the Africa Cup of Nations, how have you adapted your game to be comfortable at this level?
Sphephelo Sithole: I think everybody knows that this competition is very difficult. All the best African players in the world come and play in this competition. Obviously for us who are not playing at the top level, the first game wasn't easy for me and the team, but afterwards, as a collective, we adapted very well and it helped us play a very good tournament.
SL: What lessons have you taken away from this competition?
SS: What I have taken away from this competition is to have a never-give-up attitude. I think everybody saw during Afcon that anything can happen at any time at any minute, because you saw some of the teams score two goals in 10 minutes, so this shows the level of concentration needs to be very high. So, you need to push all the way to win the tournament. If you look at the likes of Ivory Coast, everybody thought they were not going to win the tournament, but they ended up winning it.
SL: We've seen you play in this tournament and been really impressed with how you've broken down opposition attacks and bossed the midfield at times. The question now is, how are you still plying your trade in the Portuguese second division?
SS: There are a lot of reasons behind that. Of course, everybody knows that I played in the Portuguese First Division (Liga Portugal) when I was 21 and 22, but I think things didn't happen for me at that time because I had offers, but the club that I was playing for before wanted a lot of money. So, that blocked me to move away from the club and that was the reason I went to the Second Division. You know clubs, if they see that you are the only available player in the team, they will tend to use that against you, so that's what happened to me as well. Because, honestly speaking, they wanted big money for me at that time and I was still under contract. Even for me to go to Tondela, I was told to go there, so then I went.
SL: Do you think a tournament like the Afcon is what you needed to revive the interest from some bigger leagues and bigger clubs?
SS: Obviously, because I went to Tondela with the objective of getting game-time so that I would be able to play at the Afcon, which I did, and I think me going there helped me a lot. It's a club that was playing in the top division of Portugal for many years and now they are fighting for promotion. As far as offers are concerned, I don't know about that.
SL: Out of all the semi-finalists at the tournament, South Africa arguably had the toughest route to the final four, but for you, who was the toughest opponent that you came up against in the middle of the park during your time here in Ivory Coast?
SS: That number four from Mali, Amadou Haidara. That guy is very good, with the ball and without the ball. Everything about him is exceptional. Without the ball, he is very physical and with the ball as well, he can play. He has a good mentality because he was pushing his team to do their best at all times on the pitch because at all times they kept going.
SL: Regarding Ronwen Williams, having just won the tournament's Golden Glove award, what does he bring to the team as a captain?
SS: I think he has been in the national team for years, so he knows how things go here. Not just as a captain, but him as a person as well, he is a very good guy and that's why I think he has been here in the team for so long. He brings us together at all costs and, above all that, he is a quality player and goalkeeper. Everybody in the world knows that now. So, I think he is a good guy and deserves all the recognition he is getting. I think we trust each other so much in this group, everybody knows that we are here because we are all good players, not only Ronza but everyone. Specifically for Ronza, he is a very good keeper and we know he will not allow any goals to go behind him.
It's a very good feeling
Soccer Laduma: How does it feel, personally, that your integration into the team coincided with the national side going onto this historical run at this year's edition of the Africa Cup of Nations?
Grant Kekana: I think it's been a very good experience. This is something you dream of, especially as a child. We grew up being told how 1996 was and how 1998 was and how good the players were, and for us to play in such a tournament and to play in it how we did after how we started, it's a very good feeling. It's a very good group of guys that we have here, not only good players but good human beings. I just feel so good to be a part of it and even though we didn't go all the way, but even receiving that bronze medal just goes to show the type of players that we have. To go against all odds and come out third in such a difficult competition is just a good feeling, so I think it'll just give us motivation going into the second half of the season. Obviously at (Mamelodi) Sundowns, we have the CAF Champions League coming up, so it will give us good motivation to know that we are respected for what we did at this tournament and hopefully we will achieve bigger things going forward with this group.
SL: With this Bafana Bafana team being so heavily influenced by Sundowns players, what does performing well at a tournament such as this do for your guys' aspirations for adding a second star for the club and how has playing with so many of your club mates helped?
GK: It's been a benefit for us. I think we've all participated in the Champions League, from the hostility, to the pressures that it comes with, so the Afcon just added to that experience. It will give us good motivation to know that we're well-respected, but it is also going to demand a lot from us because it's going to need us to step up from where we left off in the Afcon. It's a good pressure, but a pressure that allows us to grow and allows us to get better, but to also not sleep on the laurels because we know we've reached the semi-final. We know what we want in the CAF Champions League, so it's going to give us good motivation going forward.
SL: Teboho Mokoena says that coach Hugo Broos is the best coach South Africa has had in the last 24 years. Can you just enlighten us on what makes him such a special coach?
GK: I think he is very honest. Coach Hugo doesn't beat around the bush, but he also gives us our freedom, which is a good thing. I think we've been in camp for over a month, but it didn't feel like we were away from home for as much as we're in the Ivory Coast. So, I think that's just one of the qualities outside of football he possesses. He allows us to be free, feel free, to express ourselves, especially on the field. He knows what we're capable of and he asks for us to give him what we're good at and not complicate a lot of things. He instils that confidence in us, which is a good thing, and it's gotten us this far, so I can definitely relate to what Tebza was saying.
It was just one of those
Soccer Laduma: You joined Mamelodi Sundowns at 25 years old. What is it that they have done for you whereby you've elevated your level to the point where people around the continent now regard you as the best right back?
Khuliso Mudau: I think all I can say is that side you need to have the right mentality. You need to stay positive and you need to make sure that you want to learn. If you can check, everyone who is there, almost all of them have improved. So, you need to learn a lot and tell yourself you want to improve, because that side there are corrections. There are a lot of meetings – they want to see your corrections, they want to see your videos and you have to show the coach that you did your corrections. If they are not happy, they will come to you and tell you what it is that you need to improve on.
SL: You had a massive opportunity, with a gaping net in front of you, to take Bafana Bafana to their first Afcon final since 1998 in the dying minutes against Nigeria. In the aftermath of our subsequent elimination, how do you feel about the missed chance?
KM: You know it's football, those things happen. Some you will score, some you will miss. I don't know what to say, these things happen. Obviously when I take the field, I want to win every game, like everyone. It was just one of those.
