Bafana Bafana won the first leg of their doubleheader against Ethiopia on Saturday. The score line suggests a comfortable win, but it is far from it. Many Bafana fans were displeased with how the game panned out but will take solace in the three points that bring them closer to their World Cup aspirations.
The team resorted to “kick and rush” football to overcome the Ethiopians, and Hugo Broos has explained why they played the way they did. The victory keeps South Africa top of the Group G log, one point ahead of closest rivals Ghana.
The team’s performance was not as impressive as their display when they took on Ghana last month. Bafana won the game 1-0 but put up a patchy performance against Ethiopia. Broos has blamed the poor quality of their display on the quality of the pitch. According to him, the playing surface was of poor standard.
“I don’t think it was easy on the ball, and that is certainly [to blame on] the pitch,” the Belgian tactician said.
“We were a little bit afraid when the ball was coming off a bad control. You saw that in our game also, we were not confident like we were against Ghana and the only reason for this is the pitch.
Broos was unhappy at the quality of the pitch. The Belgian manager was unequivocal in his condemnation of the Ethiopians for deciding the game be played on such a pitch.
“I said it before the game that I don’t understand how for such an important game, that Ethiopia is coming to play here on this pitch.
“It’s also not good for them because they are a team who plays football. It’s not kick and rush football that they play, but on this field, you can do nothing else other than kick and rush because it is difficult.”