Bafana Coach Hugo Broos Wants More Fans Against Warriors
South Africa’s coach Hugo Broos wants 20 000 fans to be allowed into the stadium as he targets maximum points in their next 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe next month.
A win for Bafana Bafana against the Warriors, who have been eliminated from the qualifying race after three successive losses, will leave South Africa on the verge of reaching the final World Cup qualifying stage.
Bafana played in front of about 2 000 fans in their 1-0 win over Ethiopia on Tuesday and the Belgian said he would like to have more against Zimbabwe. Said Broos:
… we really hope that for the next game against Zimbabwe there will be more fans in the stands.
This is because if you have a bad moment in the game and you have the fans behind you, they will back you and give you energy.
In this game, we had about 2 000 fans inside FNB Stadium and maybe by the time we take on Zimbabwe, it will be 10 times more because that will definitely be fantastic for the players.
Bafana will go into that crucial home match on the back of three successive victories where they scored five goals and conceded only once, while Zimbabwe will be looking for their first win of the qualifiers.
Broos acknowledged that Zimbabwe are not going to be easy, despite the fact that they have only managed one point from four matches. He said:
We are still number one on the log and we will see in the home game here against Zimbabwe, which is the most important game for us now. Let’s hope that we will be ready and fresher for that game.
I am looking at players playing with the combinations as they did against Ghana, I am expecting them to show character as they showed against Ethiopia and I think we have a great chance to finish top in our group.
I know the situation as it is now, in one month we have to go again with a one-point lead and that means Ghana has to win their next match against Ethiopia. There is no other solution for them.
But first of all, for us, it is to deal with Zimbabwe and I hope that my colleague (Ethiopia coach Wubetu Abate) will give a little present next month by beating Ghana to make things easy for us.
