Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos will have his eye set on the bigger picture when his charges face France and Guinea in two friendly internationals to be played in Europe later this month.
Broos has already begun preparations for the start of the qualifiers for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in June, and the matches against Guinea in Belgium on March 25 and France in Lille four days later are part of the grand plan.
The Belgian mentor announced a preliminary squad for the two friendlies on Monday morning and the final list will be unveiled in the coming days ahead of the team’s departure on March 21.
“The challenges, I think, [that came] after the qualifiers for the World Cup, we evaluated the team and saw that there were some weaknesses, certainly in the game against Ghana. The team was not ready to play such a game.
“We saw that Ghana started the game very aggressively and we didn’t have an answer to that, so that was one of the things we saw, and therefore we started to look for other players and see where we could improve the team.
“So those two games [against France and Guinea] are not really about the results but more about preparation for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in June. So there will be new players, we will see if they are playing well in their clubs and then see if they perform for Bafana, which is a level higher.
“Let us hope that they improve the team. So we are using these game to be ready for June and know that we have a stronger team than the team that played in the [World Cup] qualifiers.”
Broos said he intends to experiment in Europe and will not place a heavy emphasis on the results Bafana achieves against France and Guinea.
“These are friendly games, but they are more about preparation. These games are an opportunity for us to try some things. You cannot try things when you are playing qualifiers, you have to be sure when you put your team on the pitch. You have to be sure that those are the right players in the right positions. Now we can try [new things now] and we can see what that those players are giving to the team. I’m thinking about Mosele [Goodman], I’m thinking about Shandu [Bandile], I’m thinking about Lakay [Fagrie].
“Those players can be an improvement for us. The result for me is not so important, not at all. But I want to see the things we try in those games can be improvement for the team or not”.
