Bafana head coach Hugo Broos and his team are preparing for the Afcon tournament in Stellenbosch near Cape Town.
Darren Stewart / Gallo Images
Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has explained what his team needs to win the Africa Cup of Nations, after winning it with Cameroon in 2017.
Broos won the 2017 edition in Gabon with Cameroon after they beat Egypt in the final, within a year of taking over the job as head coach of the Indomitable Lions.
After South Africa failed to qualify for the 2021 continental showpiece in Cameroon (which was postponed to 2022 due to Covid-19), they eventually appointed the Belgian in May 2021 to revive their fortunes on the international stage.
Bafana qualified for the biennial tournament in Ivory Coast with a game to spare, although their group had only two teams, Liberia and Morocco, after Zimbabwe were disqualified.
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Broos says it was a special moment for him winning the Afcon with Cameroon and he would like to win the title again with Bafana.
“It’s still a special experience for me, certainly winning a big tournament but winning it in Africa; it’s a totally different mentality that I had to learn and to know,” Broos told SAFA media.
“And for me it was a fantastic experience winning Afcon five, six years ago. If you ask me, do you want to do it again?
“For sure I want to do it again but I’m looking forward to the games, the atmosphere around the games, the total atmosphere of the tournament.”
Bafana notably beat Morocco in the AFCON qualifier back in June last year and recently held hosts Ivory Coast to a 1-1 draw in an international friendly in Abidjan in October last year.
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The Belgian went on and explained that South African would need to be mentally at the highest level to stand a chance to win the tournament and believes they have the quality
“To see everybody wants to show how good they are, everyone is motivated and that it is a tough tournament,” he continued.
“It’s not only being mentally at the top but it’s also quality. We will see, our quality now is at the highest level where Africa is,” he concluded.
