Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos 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 on Tuesday evening.
The Mamelodi Sundowns captain gave South Africa the lead within the first
nine minutes before the Elephants equalised in the second stanza through
Sabastien Haller. Broos said 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 Zwane, 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 Eswatini.
“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.
