Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says he is tempted to make changes as they will meet Algeria on Tuesday night. Broos says there will be no experimentation against Algeria as they target a positive result ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Just last week, Bafana played to a dull draw against Andorra and will meet the Algerians on Tuesday to end their first-ever FIFA Series.
The match will be hosted at the iconic Nelson Mandela Stadium and it comes after what was a proverbial B team against the European minnows, now the Belgian mentor is planning to go back to his full-strength squad.
Bafana Coach to Make Changes Against Algeria
The 1996 African champions fielded a weakened side where they scored through Elias Mokwana. “There will be lots of changes [for Algeria], I looked a bit at both games, and I think it was the best opportunity to give those guys,” said Broos.
“The [inexperienced] guys to play last Thursday, it wasn’t a difficult opponent, even though the game ended up difficult. But if you compare Andorra with Algeria, there is a lot of difference in quality, so we need to put our best team [forward] on Tuesday and we can’t afford to experiment again, it will be a different team – also players who didn’t play on Thursday, they won’t be tired. They will be fresh to play the game, we need that.”
Bafana Coach Broos Expects a Tough Duel Against Algeria
After guiding Bafana to third place at the recent Afcon tournament in Ivory Coast, Broos added that he is wary of the North Africans. The Belgian led Bafana to a podium finish at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations to bag their maiden medal in 24 years. In addition, the friendly comes ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe in June.
“It will be a difficult game certainly, we all know Algeria has a lot of quality, it was a disappointment for all Algerians to see them play at AFCON and out in the group stages already,” Broos added.
“They have much quality, I saw already the game they played on Friday against Bolivia, you see already the motivation of the players is different because it’s a new coach, they wanted to show him they deserve to be in the team, they deserve to play.”
“So only for that the motivation will be big in the team of Algeria, playing at home, the supporters will be there. It will be a good test for us again after AFCON and we’ll try to make a good result, but the performance is more important than the result. Even [though] we need victories to keep our ranking but yeah, it is what it is, it’s more important [to play well to prepare] for Nigeria and Zimbabwe in two months time – for those games there’s no excuses, we have to secure good results.”
In a similar post, this publication reported that Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena and Bafana Bafana counterpart, Broos are involved in another beef. Bafana is away in Algeria preparing for two friendlies against Algeria and Andorra but they are without Sundowns players. This has led to the Belgian mentor lamenting Sundowns and Mokwena for antics, after saying their players are injured. Mokwena said after their Nedbank Cup match against Maritzburg United, some of his Bafana players are nursing injuries.
Mokwena referred to Bafana skipper Ronwen Williams and midfielder Teboho Mokoena. The Masandawana boss, Mokwena says Williams is nursing a shoulder injury from the recent Afcon tournament.
Related: Kaizer Chiefs legend speaks on comfort zone at Naturena
