Bafana Bafana's Hugo Broos turns focus to Fifa World Cup despite mounting criticism

Hugo Broos has taken Bafana Bafana’s disappointing AFCON campaign in his stride, which is why he has not been taken aback by the criticism as he now shifts his focus to guiding the team towards an impressive showing at the Fifa World Cup in North America.

Bafana were eliminated in the AFCON last 16 by Cameroon in Rabat on Sunday night, ending their hopes of surpassing their third-place finish from the previous edition in Ivory Coast and emulating the victorious class of ’96.

Their shortcomings have drawn heavy criticism towards the team, particularly Broos. Some critics believe the coach is out of his depth and should therefore not be allowed by SAFA to lead the team at the global showpiece in June.

Broos, however, is not reading too much into the criticism. He has already spoken to the players and members of his technical team about their individual responsibilities, including his own reflection on what went wrong for the team. Be that as it may, the silver-haired Belgian knows that the buck stops with him, which is why he also will use the next few weeks to evaluate where things went wrong overall.

Broos is a tough nut to crack under pressure and understands that criticism follows during rough patches, while plaudits are few during purple patches. This is why he remains focused on leaving the jersey in a better place when he retires after the World Cup in winter.

“First of all, I don’t want to make comments on that,” Broos said on the sidelines of the team’s sombre arrival at OR Tambo International Airport on Monday, when asked about the criticism that has befallen him following Bafana’s early AFCON exit.

“Secondly, I don’t read social media because what is in there is trash. And you know, I have 40 years of experience. I know that when everything is good and you’re winning, all those guys shut up. But once there is a defeat, they suddenly have big mouths. So they have big mouths now — I know that and I can manage it.

“So whatever they say or think I should have done, and whichever players they think I should have called up, I know my job. I have been here for four years and haven’t been listening to this and that, and I won’t start doing so now for the last six months either.”

Broos is not naive enough to think the next six months will suddenly turn the team into world-beaters as long as they continue to rely heavily on locally based players. As such, they will need to carefully gauge their readiness across all areas when they prepare for their group-stage rivals at the World Cup.

“It’s not that when you suddenly play once against Argentina or Ghana that your level will go up,” Broos conceded. “But yeah, what can we do? We just hope the players get the opportunity to move abroad and make the step in future.”

According to Broos, the standard of the PSL still lags behind European leagues, which is why Bafana also struggled at AFCON against opponents largely made up of overseas-based players.

“As a national team, we can do nothing about that because those teams have players who are playing in Europe, and we don’t,” Broos said.

“That is the disadvantage. Even when you play against Angola, they have more players playing in Europe. I am not even speaking about Cameroon. So this is the opportunity our players need to have. They have to be challenged more. I’ve said that the gap between the PSL level and what we experienced in the last weeks at AFCON is very big.

"You can only make that gap smaller when you have players who are playing in difficult competitions. So let’s hope more players go to Europe in the future and play under those conditions, because that will help enormously.”