Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi has praised Bafana Bafana boss Hugo Broos for turning around the fortunes of the national team and bringing back belief.
South Africa just secured back-to-back qualification to the Africa Cup of Nations following an unbeaten record, when they topped their group, and are also level on points with Rwanda and Benin in their World Cup qualifying pool.
This comes after finishing third at the 203 Africa Cup of Nations, their best in over 20 years, and Mngqithi feels this would not have been possible had Broos not laid solid foundations and set high standards for Bafana Bafana.
Sundowns coach happy with Broos’ work
“The national team qualifying for AFCON again, in such a very pleasing manner, I am very excited, and [is there] any South African who would not be excited with what is happening with the national team now? There’s something wrong with that person,” Mngqithi said as per iDiski Times.
“At the moment, I think we’ve reached a stage where we can be confident and brag about our national team because they’re giving exactly what the nation would have required from them.
“They are scoring goals, winning matches convincingly. Personally, I’m very excited about what the national team is doing and what coach Hugo Broos has also done, he’s faced a lot of criticism in the past when people didn’t understand what he was trying to do.
“But I think he’s proven so many people wrong. Sometimes in life, you must accept it’s God’s way – sometimes God, when he wants to put you on the podium, he doesn’t want you to be at the podium when there are no spectators.
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“When you face these trials and tribulations and people doubt the capacity of Hugo Broos and when he does what he does, everyone becomes the audience.
“We must applaud the work he’s done with the team because he’s come from a position where not many people thought he’d do so much and it’s exciting.”
Broos has brought back the belief in Bafana Bafana going by the sold-out crowds in their recent home matches and they are yet to lose a match since their opening day defeat against Mali at the AFCON 2023 in January.
There is great hope that South Africa will secure a World Cup ticket for the first time since 2010 with a home match against Lesotho and an away tie to Benin lined up next in March 2025.
