- Broos castigated PSL players after win over Botswana
- Hinted they may not be part of Bafana in future
- Mngqithi responds in defense of PSL and players
WHAT HAPPENED? Broos was critical of local-based players after South Africa saw off Botswana 1-0 in their second friendly match on Tuesday.
The Belgian fielded a completely different squad from the one that played and defeated Sierra Leone 4-0 to face Botswana, and in the end, he was visibly unsatisfied with the performance.
WHAT HAS BEEN SAID: "To be honest I would not want to comment much about Hugo Broos, because it’s a free country, you can say whatever you want to say," Mngqithi said as quoted by iDiski Times.
"But the only thing that is always very important, it gives you a little bit of a free license to say what you want to say when you’re winning matches. If you’re not winning, there will always be question marks.
"As to whether South Africa are good enough or not good enough, I’m not sure, because South Africa have achieved very good things in the past – we’ve had our national team qualify for the Olympics, we’ve had our players perform for many teams, Sundowns competing fairly well in the continental space and locally.
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"We’ve had a number of teams doing very… Cape Town City have done exceptionally well. Pirates have done exceptionally well. I believe there is a very big pool of players to choose. But if you are choosing whomever you are choosing and you are not winning and you are saying the team is not good enough, maybe when you are pointing fingers, most fingers might be pointing in your direction.
"But if you are winning matches, we are always willing to listen to you, any coach, if he's winning matches, it shows exactly what he’s trying to do. But again, the calibre of matches is very important because… Ok, let me keep quiet."
THE BIGGER PICTURE: After the initial two straight defeats to Morocco and France, South Africa finally managed to win; back-to-back friendly victories against Sierra Leone and Botswana helped ease pressure on Broos a little.
Broos himself recalled Mamelodi Sundowns' Themba Zwane – who responded with a brace against Sierra Leone - after he had been initially snubbed.
However, with Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against the Atlas Lions and Liberia awaiting them next year, the former Cameroon coach is far from convinced of the performance of his charges, especially those that do their trade on the local scene.
WHAT NEXT FOR BROOS AND SOUTH AFRICA: After failing to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar, expectations are higher for Bafana to make it to the 2023 Ivory Coast Afcon finals.