Maritzburg United’s Lebohang Maboe says that Bafana Bafana’s players knew that South Africans were angry with their defeat to Madagascar, and took it upon himself to try and be better against Namibia.
The 23-year-old, who recently picked up the Nedbank Cup Most Promising Player and Player of the Tournament awards for 2017/18, bagged a brace as Stuart Baxter’s side got back to winning ways with a 4-1 win over Namibia, landing the Man of the Match gong for his efforts.
Read: Baxter Heaps Praise On Bafana Teen
Baxter opted to take a young side to the COSAFA Cup – he’s handed out seven debuts so far – with Maboe one of the players who has at least played for the South African national team before.
Speaking to SAFA after the victory, he said, "I did not sleep the night after the game against Madagascar. It kept on playing on my mind that I missed such a great chance to win the game for us… So, I wasn't going to allow myself to experience the same feeling], and I just told myself once I got the ball that I had to be a bit more composed, which I was and I put it in the back of the net.
"If I had been much more composed in the game against Madagascar, I would have put the ball in the back of the net, but I wasn't. So, going into the Namibia game, I was much more composed. I think we had a good game, we really showed that we wanted it more than Namibia. We worked as a team, which helped us a lot, and as a group, we just did well.
"The nation was angry, so we had to come back positive and strong from the Madagascar game, which we did, hence we won the game."
Bafana’s final game of the tournament, in the plate final, will see them face Botswana at 17h00 tomorrow.
