Hugo Broos was impressed by South Africa’s second half performance against Angola in the team’s opening game of the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos was pleased that his side began their Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a victory.
South Africa emerged as 2-1 victors over Angola at the Stade de Marrakech on Monday, with Oswin Appolis scoring the opener in the 21st minute and Lyle Foster bagging the winner in the 79th minute.
Despite the result, Broos was not impressed by his side’s first half display.
In the first half, I don’t know why, but we fell asleep. This was not the South Africa that I’m used to seeing. There was no depth in our game. We all cast the ball in the feet. We gave the opportunity to the opponent to put pressure on us,” said Broos, speaking after the game.
The Belgian tactician was far more pleased with his side’s second half performance, suggesting that their lackluster first half inspired a better second period.
“Maybe it was good that it happened. We got a good wake-up call in the first 45 minutes. I don’t think that will happen again in the next games. For us, the most important thing now is
to survive those group stages and go into the second round. Then we will see.
“This is a tough tournament. You need sometimes a little bit of luck also. We will see what we
can do. I’m confident because I saw [in] the second half what I wanted to see, it has to be better football. But again, the passion and the aggression was again in our game.
“That makes me happy.”
Broos knows the tournament is far from over and more challenges await his siode.s However, his mentality and that of his team is to take it one game at a time.
“We are very happy with the victory. Now we can [look forward] to the game with Egypt on Friday, in other circumstances than if we should have lost points today,” he said.
Bafana Bafana are next in action on Friday as they face Egypt at the Stade Adrar in Agadir.
