Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has explained his decision to bench Lyle Foster after edging Liberia 2-1 in the second leg of the AFCON qualifiers at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Stadium on Tuesday night.
Broos and his charges booked their flight to the AFCON finals that will take place at Ivory Coast in January next year.
With Bafana coming to this encounter desperate for a victory, the Belgian mentor made five changes to his starting line-up that drew 2-2 against Liberia in Dobsonville Stadium last Friday.
LYLE FOSTER DROPPED DESPITE SCORING IN THE FIRST LEG
Surprisingly, Foster, who scored a brace in Bafana Bafana’s last game, was dropped to the bench and replaced by Zakhele Lepasa at the spear of Broos’ attack.
Lepasa repaid the faith shown in him by the Belgian with an opening goal for Bafana, and the tactician has shed some light on why the SuperSport United forward started ahead of Foster.
“On Friday, we didn’t have depth in our game when we lost the ball,” Broos told the SAFA media.
“There was no immediate pressing, and I know Zakhele is a guy who runs 90 minutes, and he scored a fantastic goal. He was present the whole game.
“So that’s why we changed with Zakhele, and also, I have to say that Lyle Foster didn’t feel well in the morning, and we wouldn’t take a risk because we knew we wanted players who are 100%, and again, I think the decision was right,” added the coach.
Broos further outlined the strength of Liberia and how they dealt with it to walk away with maximum points.
HUGO BROOS EXPLAINS
“We knew the style of Liberia is power play, long balls to the front, then headers and powerful duels.
“Therefore, we changed players in our team, we brought in players who are also powerful like [Innocent] Maela,[Sphephelo] Sithole, and I think we did good by doing that.
“We scored the first goal, and it was unlucky that we conceded a goal with a shot from outside the box.
“After we scored the second goal, it was just power play. They didn’t look at anything anymore; they just dropped the ball in the 16 yards and hoped it would fall to their feet,” he said.
RELATED STORY: Bafana Bafana beat Liberia to secure AFCON qualification
