Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos once again expressed his disappointment with his team’s lack of match sharpness after their narrow 3-2 victory over South Sudan in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Tuesday.

Broos attributed the team’s struggles to the delayed start of the Betway Premiership “but we should have scored five goals in the first half”, adding that 80% of his players have seen limited playing time. Despite dominating the first half and creating numerous scoring chances, Bafana Bafana struggled to convert them.

Orlando Pirates midfielder Thalente Mbatha once again came to the rescue, scoring a late goal to secure a victory for South Africa. The result moved Bafana Bafana into second place in Group K with four points.

Broos also highlighted individual errors as a contributing factor to the team’s struggles. “First of all, I said it before at the beginning of last week – the big trouble we have now at this moment is our players didn’t play competitive games,” said Broos after the game on Tuesday. 

“80 percent of the players only played pre-season friendly games and we saw that in both games (including the 2-2 draw against Uganda on Friday), we are not sharp enough and this is not South Africa that we knew from other games. 

“This is the first thing. Secondly, okay, individual mistakes can always happen. But now in two games we have made individual mistakes – the second goal against Uganda (where the ball got spilt in the hands of Veli Mothwa) was a mistake. 

“The two goals of South Sudan were mistakes, two defensive mistakes we made and this is something we have to do better in the next games and certainly next month against Congo (home and away) and I’m sure it will better because at that moment my players would have more competitive games because this weekend the league is starting. 

Broos expressed optimism for the future, as the start of the league will provide his players with more competitive match experience. “That was the biggest problem South Africa had in those two games, as we didn’t have enough competitive games (from players in their clubs).  

“There was a lack of sharpness in our game.”  

Bafana Bafana will face Congo in their next two qualifiers, with the home match scheduled for 7 October and the away match eight days later.