Unfocused Hugo Broos blasted for AFCON exit as 'he made elementary mistakes' as Bafana Bafana were 'not beaten, we beat ourselves'

Bafana Bafana's early exit from the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco remains a bitter pill to swallow for most South Africans.

In the previous edition, South Africa reached the semis, and in Morocco, there was palpable belief that the team - buoyed by an experienced coach, top players in the Premier Soccer League and indisputable national support - was capable of winning the coveted African title.

Howver, that was not the case and the team's early exit remains a blow to the nation's pride.

Pundits, retired soccer stars and the public have been assessing what could have gone wrong, and Broos' tactics, especially in the game against Cameroon, remain the most contestable issue.

Now, former Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi is the latest football figure to add his voice. The Golden Arrows tactician has pointed out that Broos errors, especially in tactics, and that is what should primarily be blamed for Bafana's exit.

“Hugo did a lot well that we have to commend him for, but in this AFCON I don’t think he was as focused as he was in the previous AFCON,” Mngqithi said on Prime Time Sports on Ukhozi FM.

“The mistakes he made in this one were elementary ones because I think he is a top coach. If I can make an example with the Cameroon game. He made a mistake by benching two players who had played impressively before – [Tshepang] Moremi and [Aubrey] Modiba.

“Before the game, I was thinking that we would need to have people who would exploit the space behind Cameroon. Moremi would have been the best candidate for that because we knew that Cameroon would try to come at us," he added.

“We should have had a plan that if they come at us and we want to hit them with a counter, we must know what we have behind their defence.

“It showed when Modiba put in two good balls into the box, Mudau or Foster should have scored one of them. But the truth is, I think in this tournament, we were not beaten; we beat ourselves.”

Former Moroka Swallows head coach Brandon Truter spoke his mind and criticised Broos' tactics, just like Mngqithi has done.

"As a coach, I'm also a bit baffled as to why he changed the formation. I don't know [what the reasons were] because right through the group stages, we never played this formation," Truter said in an earlier interview.

"So you have less than a week between the last group game and the knockout game, which is the biggest game, and you change formations. How much focus could have been given to that? I'm not sure if they trained it before. 

"And on top of it, in a game that matters, you make four changes to your line-up. Four changes in a knockout game, a game that matters? Would you not have gone with a tried and tested one?" Truter questioned.

When he was pressed to explain why he thinks South Africa could not go far, the Belgian deflected blame and blamed the PSL level.

“There are teams at the Cup of Nations with players who play in Europe. We mostly don’t have them, and that is a disadvantage for South Africa,” the 73-year-old coach said. 

“Cameroon is a brand-new team, and when you see where those players are playing, there’s a guy, the striker Christian Kofane, who’s playing for Bayer Leverkusen. He’s 19 years old. 

“So this is the opportunity our players need to have because they have to be challenged more," the 73-year-old added.

 "I said from the beginning that the level of the PSL compared with the level we had in the last weeks is very different, and you can only close that gap when you have players who are also playing in very difficult competitions. 

“So let’s hope that players in the future have more opportunities to go to Europe and play in those very difficult competitions and face those challenges, because that should help this team enormously.

“It’s not because you play once against Argentina or once against Ghana that suddenly your level will go up. No, this is something else. But yeah, what can we do? We just hope they get the opportunity and make the step," Broos concluded.

To right the wrongs that occurred in Morocco, Broos must guide Bafana to a better campaign in the 2026 World Cup finals.

Although there are calls to sack the 2017 AFCON-winning tactician, Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie silenced those calls by stating the coach is going nowhere.