Following Bafana Bafana’s famous 1-0 win over South Korea in their final Group A Fifa World Cup match on Thursday, ex-Bafana Bafana striker Katlego Mphela has explained how coach Hugo Broos got it right.
After a disappointing 2-0 defeat to co-host Mexico in the opening match, Bafana came back to draw with Czech Republic before securing a historic victory against Korea to book their place in the last 32. They will face Canada at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday at 9pm.
Broos adjusted his lineup to oust Korea and secure a passage to the next round after reverting to a positive 4-3-3 system that gave Bafana attacking flair.
Mphela praised Broos for taking this responsibility, saying he was spot-on.
“First of all, congratulations to the boys for the job well done, and the coach took responsibility ... maybe the past two matches we were a bit negative in our approach,” Mphela explained to Sowetan.
“And he managed to get it right from the word go and you could see we had a chance because of the players he put in the team and they qualified to the next stage, first time in history. Well done to the coach and hopefully, going forward he will start with this approach.”
After coming on in the second half against Czech and made an immediate impact, Relebohile Mofokeng earned his start against Korea and was able to unlock their defensive lines with direct passes.
Mphela was happy with the decision to start with Mofokeng and Evidence Makgopa, who gave the Korean defence a hard time.
“Sometimes you just need to put players that are on form, [Orlando] Pirates were on form ... they won the league, [Mamelodi] Sundowns came second and won the Champions League, so we have to use these players because we don’t have time to experiment and I think that’s what we did and got the results because Mofokeng was playing in the pockets, Ngwana Sesi [Makgopa] was keeping them busy throughout the night, and even though he didn’t score he did a great job,” he said.
With Bafana facing Canada on Sunday, Mphela is confident they will win and advance to the last 16. “Definitely, we have a chance. I saw them playing against Switzerland when they lost, they created a lot of chances.
“It is a knockout stage and anything can happen, I got a lot of confidence in these boys. They can go to the next round, we are no longer underdogs, everyone knows how we play.”
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