Sunday Times E-Edition

Broos still concerned about the standard in the PSL but has no doubt about Afcon qualification

By SAZI HADEBE

● Though yet to be impressed about the level of South Africa’s Premier Soccer League (PSL), Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has no complaints about the quality he has in the pool of players he believes will qualify the country for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Broos was struggling to find strikers when he assumed the Bafana job in May 2021, but this week he said the quality he sees in Lyle Foster, Percy Tau, Cassius Mailula, Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Zakhele Lepasa, who are part of the attackers he selected for the double whammy of 2023 Afcon qualifiers against Liberia, gives him a great deal of optimism.

“It’s still the same,” was Broos’s swift assessment of the PSL after scanning the league for 22 months since being named Bafana coach.

“The level of the PSL must improve. You can see the gap in that, for two times in a row, Mamelodi Sundowns are 20 points ahead (in the league). What are the other teams doing? We have to increase the level (of other teams).”

The Belgian also pulled no punches on the attitude and conduct of some of the players, such as Sundowns’ Andile Jali, who alongside fellow midfielder Sipho Mbule, are alleged to have recently arrived at the club’s training session drunk.

“I was disappointed when I heard that a player like Andile Jali (Sundowns), who you want to show to young players, came drunk (allegedly) at training. That is happening in a top team, the best team in this country. What happens (then) in small teams? I don’t know. But when

I say that the level is not good, I also include the attitude of the players. I still see players who are overweight. This is not normal when you’re a professional player.”

The positive Broos sees in local football is that some PSL clubs are doing exactly what he tried to do when he arrived in SA, putting his trust in younger players.

“I’m happy when I see what’s happening at Sundowns, Stellenbosch and SuperSport (United). This is what must happen because it is the future. When you put in a young player even if he does badly, he will give his heart in his performance and you can change him. But you can’t change a guy who’s 29 or 30 years old. You can’t change Jali.”

Already young players like Sundowns striker Mailula have been rewarded with Bafana call-ups by Broos after impressing this season. “Give him (Mailula) a chance around the area, it’s a goal. He’s got unbelievable quality,” enthused the Bafana coach.

“Cassius is a young guy and can still progress but already the quality he has for scoring is amazing. It’s something I didn’t have when I came here. I was looking for strikers and we didn’t find them. Now we have young players like Lyle (Foster), 22, Mailula, 21, Zakhele Lepasa, 25 ... three strikers who have potential and can still progress.”

But with one area seemingly bearing fruit, there are question marks about the supply to the strikers — to the very players giving Broos hope. He is counting on strikers to beat Liberia on Friday at Orlando Stadium and in Monrovia on March 28 in the return leg and qualify for the delayed 2023 Afcon, which will be played in Ivory Coast early next year.

“We have it now,” said Broos of the Bafana players who can provide the final ball. “We have (Themba) Zwane, we have Percy Tau and other players on the wings. If you compare that with the (2022) World Cup qualifiers, I think it’s a very big difference.”

If there’s any criticism of Broos’s selection it would be that he still can’t find room for Neo Maema, the dynamic Sundowns midfielder who’s been instrumental in the creation of the Brazilians’ goals both in the PSL and the Caf Champions League this season.

Broos said players like Maema will be considered if some of those he selected are injured in club matches during the weekend.

Ranked 150th in the world and already at the bottom of Group K after their 2-0 loss at home to World Cup semifinalists Morocco last year, Liberia are not expected to trouble Bafana. They’ll come to South Africa with new coach Ansumana Keita, who replaced Englishman Peter Butler in January.

Sport

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2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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