South Africa coach Hugo Broos came in for some sharp questioning after the country’s 2-1 loss to Cameroon in Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final, eliminated in the last 16.
Bafana squandered some early chances and despite Broos fielding a five-man defence, Cameroon were 2-0 up soon after halftime.
South Africa did rally and pull one back, but Evidence Makgopa’s goal came too late.
Here is what Broos said after the game in Rabat:
What do you want to say after the loss?
“Everyone is very disappointed, really unhappy today. I think we had the right plan. And everyone saw that in the first half, we had three open chances in the first half an hour.
Normally, the game has to be done then, but when you miss their chances on that level, you're made to pay later. And we paid the bill; they got a lucky goal. The corner, we cleared it out of the 16, the guy shoots, it touches our leg, goes to the feet of a Cameroon player, and he scores.
I think that was their first chance. Cameroon didn't have an answer to the way we played, but unfortunately, very soon in the second half, at the second goal, and then you know that it will be very difficult, because at that moment, Cameroon stayed very well at the block, on around 16, they kicked the ball in front, and then they had some very quick players.
We tried to be dangerous. We still had chances. And we scored a little bit late. There was not enough time because otherwise, I think we could have maybe played a draw and have extra time.
As I said before the game, that this team of Cameroon played with a big heart, fighting spirit, a physical, very strong, and that it was a tough opponent, and I thought we saw that today. My players did what they had to do. For 90 minutes, they fought for it. But yeah, disappointment.”
Q: At the last Nations Cup, South Africa reached the semifinal, this time out in the last 16. You've conceded six goals in four games, but at the last Nations Cup, it was three across the whole tournament. Is this team going backwards under your watch, do you think?
“No, we are not going backwards. Okay, I agree with you that maybe some games the performances were not at the level of South Africa that everybody knows, but you can't say that for today.
Sometimes you need a little bit of luck on your side, and if I can come back to two years ago, against Cape Verde in the quarterfinal, 10 seconds before the end, Ronwen made a fantastic save; otherwise, we would have lost the game. So, those are things that happen, and today we didn't have the luck at our side. I agree with you. Maybe we conceded too many goals and we only scored two or three in the tournament. But we're not going backwards, certainly not. But on the other side, I think we have to make a good evaluation of what happened here in this tournament.”
Q: Some of the comments that you have made prior to the match were deemed controversial, particularly here in the host nation. Do you think that got into your head or your players' head, especially as you saw tonight, that the local fans were quite clearly on the Cameroonian side?
“I think it's not the right place and the right moment now to have comments on that. There's been too much emotion. So there is also frustration. And you know when you are emotional, sometimes you say things that you regret afterwards. So I will not do that. As I said, I'll make, in the next days and weeks, an evaluation, in detail, what went wrong, what was good. Now, we will see what we have to change because in six months, there's the World Cup, and we need to be ready for that.”
Q: Is there something that needs to change internally or administratively before going to the World Cup? Because there was a different energy that we could feel in this camp.
“As I said, I will not answer that question. We have first to make a good evaluation on that, and look at it, what the problems were or what the good things were, so that we are ready again in March to play the friendlies and be well prepared for the World Cup.
As I said already, I think in the next day, weeks, it's time to evaluate this tournament and what we did also two years ago. And see what was good and what was not good. And the good thing, the bad thing, we would try to make it better. We will see. I can make declarations now, but, you know, when you lose a game like this, you're eliminated from a tournament, you are frustrated yourself, you're disappointed, and sometimes you say things that you shouldn’t. But I agree with you that we have to evaluate our performances here and see what we can do.”