Former Bafana Bafana captain Neil Tovey has explained how Hugo Broos's side can pick up a positive result from the 2022 World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe on Friday at the National Sports Stadium.
Broos, who is taking charge of his first game as South Africa's coach, will be in Harare with his charges and Tovey has laid down a plan that can help them begin the qualifiers on a bright note.
What Tovey said?
"You are playing away from home and you want to get something out of the game, so you can’t just go there and start attacking," Tovey told Sowetan.
"You have to make sure that you start with a solid defence. I don’t mean play defensive. Just make sure you are solid in all areas on the field. Don’t give silly free-kicks away and all those types of things.
"When you get a chance, get the ball into the area where you can hurt them and play on the front foot. But it would all depend on the game earlier on how you can dictate, dominant Zimbabwe or how non-dominant they are.
"It is a new-look Bafana team, so they also have to find their feet. I will make sure you consolidate at first and build on from that throughout the game.
"We can get good results to take off a lot of pressure from us and if we can get a point or more, that will be great."
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Noting Bafana Bafana's less impressive home form, the South African retired star explained the need of making sure home matches are won.
"If you draw away from home and you win your home matches you will stand a good chance to qualify. That's logic. Where we have been playing at home and not getting full points is the worrying factor," he added.
"Let’s make sure we get something away from home since our home form is not good and then we will build from there."
Broos himself admitted the qualifier against the Northern neighbours will not be easy, but stated they will remain focused.
"I’ve seen Zimbabwe’s games in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers, against Algeria, for example. They’re a strong side and it’s not going to be easy, but we’ll just try to focus on what we can do," said the coach.
The former African champions will face Ghana after the Zimbabwe clash on Monday.
