Head coach of South Africa’s senior men’s national team, Hugo Broos, has expressed his disappointment with the performance of Bafana Bafana in their friendly game with Jamaica on Saturday.
As part of their preparations, Bafana faced Jamaica in Pachuca, Mexico, in a friendly match that ended 1-1.
Lyle Foster opened the scoring for Bafana before Dwayne Atkinson equalised for Jamaica.
Speaking after the game, Broos said the team would continue to work very hard in the coming days as he was not pleased with the performance he saw at Estadio Hidalgo.
“The performance was not what I expected. I think we have to analyse the game very well and see what was really wrong and try to make it better in the next few days so that we are ready for the first game against Mexico,” Broos said.
“I thought we were close (to getting to where he wants the team to be before the opening match), but again, it was, for me, a disappointing game this afternoon. So, yes, I have to look at what went wrong.
“I think it was also a matter of mentality. We have to do more, much more, than what we did this afternoon to have good results in the World Cup in the next few weeks.”
Jamaica coach Rudolph Speid insisted that Bafana Bafana held back against his team.
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“As it relates to South Africa, I think they were playing within themselves, though, because probably, you know, players don’t want to get injured and everybody wants to impress the coach,” he said.
“I didn’t think they were going for it as much as they could have. But playing against Mexico in the Azteca Stadium (in the opening match of the World Cup), there’s going to be 123,000 screaming Mexicans in there, I can tell you.
“They’ll probably overload it, they’re going to be pressing high up the pitch, especially in the first half. They’re going to be pressing very high in the first half, relentless pressing, but of course, the pressure will ease as the game goes along.”
