Afcon 2023 | ‘I’m proud to be the coach of this team’: Broos pays tribute to exhausted Bafana

SPORT

Bafana Bafana completed their fairytale run at the Afcon in Ivory Coast with a podium finish, snatching a bronze medal with a penalty victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Saturday night. 

South Africa won the tense shootout 6-5 after the two sides finished the match in a goalless stalemate. 

Not many had expected the team to go beyond the first round, but the team, under 71-year-old coach Hugo Broos, finished as the third best at the monthlong tournament, the second time Bafana has returned with a bronze since the 2000 edition. 

Again, it took penalty kicks to separate Bafana and their opponents, with South Africa also having had their quarterfinal against Cape Verde and the semifinal against Nigeria decided via shootouts. 

READ: Bafana players to share half the R47 million Afcon loot

Broos pointed out to the extended match periods as having taken the steam out of his players, who, in the process, had little rest compared with their next opponents en route to the third-place play-off against the DRC in Abidjan on Saturday night.

Broos added: “This was an exhausted team of South Africa. We played two games [against Cape Verde and Nigeria] 120 minutes... we played against the opponent who had one more day [to] rest than we had.

"We had the climate [extremely hot temperatures to play under], and you saw today that we were not fresh.”

Broos admitted that the DRC were a better side. Truly so, the Leopards created more scoring chances than Bafana, but goalkeeper Ronwen Williams kept his side in the game with brave saves, although a rare howler on his part almost cost South Africa towards the end of extra-time.

However, the Mamelodi Sundowns player proved once more that he’s one of the continent’s finest by stopping two penalties that essentially secured Bafana the bronze medal. 

The 32-year-old bettered the record of former Bafana keeper Andre Arendse, who previously went four matches without conceding in a single Afcon.

Bafana are expected back in the country this week.