Veteran coach Roger de Sa has described Bafana Bafana’s recent stumble against Panama as a necessary reality check, insisting that the defeat provides Hugo Broos with a crucial barometer for the team’s 2026 FIFA World Cup readiness
Broos and his Bafana troops were edged 2-1 by the Central Americans in an international friendly match at Cape Town Stadium last Tuesday. Four days earlier, the two teams had played to a 1-1 draw at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
That sealed what might look like discouraging results for a team needing positives ahead of the World Cup. What could make Bafana’s outing a huge concern is that the Panama matches contributed to South Africa’s difficult run of four winless games in their last five matches.
DE SA PICKS BAFANA’S POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES EXPOSED BY PANAMA
After a winless two-match series against the Central Americans, the former Orlando Pirates mentor believes the result has exposed glaring tactical deficiencies that must be addressed before South Africa takes to the global stage.
“What I did notice was that we were lacking in the final third, not clinical. It’s not just a Bafana issue, but a South African problem in general in our leagues. The scoring rate of one out of five is not enough; we need one out of two. That’s on the negative,” De Sa told FARPost.
“There are lots of positives, though. The play in general was good, with interplay and creativity. The shape was good, counter attacking was good. Many positives.
“In terms of physicality, we are going to struggle. We will struggle on setpieces. Other teams will take advantage of that to hurt us. We’ve got to improve. In general, we were good.
“It’s not nice to lose ahead of the World Cup. But looking at it from another angle, the loss was good, a wake-up call, a reality check. It tells you where we should work on ourselves and not relax, going to the World Cup. We were supposed to win the first game; we had a better team. In the second game, we should have thought hard that this is about scoring. Now we have two months to rectify and improve our attitude.”
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