BY KHANYISO TSHWAKU
South Africa’s coach Hugo Broos said he was far from satisfied with his team’s 1-0 win over Zimbabwe at the FNB Stadium on Thursday night.
The success was critical in that the three points accrued from the game kept South Africa at the top of Group G with 13 points after five matches.
They are three points ahead of second-place Ghana, who were held to a 1-1 draw by Ethiopia at the Orlando Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
However, South Africa’s showing was not one that Ghana would be losing sleep over ahead of Sunday’s World Cup qualifying finale at the Cape Coast Stadium.
Broos was at odds to explain his team’s listlessness despite their excellent 26th-minute goal by Teboho Mokoena.
“I was happy that we won, but I was far from satisfied with the performance,” Broos said.
“I think we play against an opponent that was more aggressive than us and I really didn’t recognise my team in this game.
“I don’t know why I couldn’t recognise them and if we were more unfortunate, we could have lost points and they could have scored.
“I’m happy that we won, but I’m not satisfied with the performance.”
The permutations arising from the win means a draw or a win will suffice for Bafana, but their string of 1-0 home wins, while important, have put them in a perilous goals scored position.
South Africa had chances in both halves to wrap up the game, but had to settle for the one-goal win.
Broos said the players understood that they fluffed their lines at the FNB Stadium and they need to be far better to ward off a wounded Ghana side to on Sunday.
“I could see in the dressing room that there wasn’t joy or a party. It was different to what I saw in the game against Ghana and Ethiopia,” Broos said.
“They know the performance wasn’t good, so they know that on Sunday, they may be more ready to play that game than they were for this game.” – Sport24