Golden Arrows head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has pointed out what he felt could have worked for Bafana Bafana in their last 16 round match against Cameroon.
Bafana lost 2-1 to the Indomitable Lions in the knockout game at Agdal Medina Stadium on Sunday evening to exit the tournament after wasting numerous chances in the opening minutes of the game. The West Africans took a 1-0 lead into the break and came back to double it early in the second stanza while Evidence Makgopa got the consolation for the South Africans in injury time.
Speaking on SABC TV after the game, Mngqithi said he felt the team among other things lacked composure to capitalise on areas they were already good at from the first half, that coach Hugo Broos could have made his substitutions earlier as well and that the team didn’t put pressure of some Cameroonian players who already had bookings.
“Considering that we went to half-time already trailing, I expected that we would use that stoppage to improve our attacking play more especially on the left channel, because we had already seen like coach Steve [Komphela] is saying, like ‘Legs of Thunder’ [Jerry Sikhosana] is saying we had created chances in that left channel,” said Mngqithi.
“But we did not have the composure, the tenacity to be able to create something out of it. I think had we made the substitution very early, as early as half-time of a [Aubrey] Modiba and maybe even on the on the central defenders.
“I could have taken one of the centre-backs between [Siyabonga] Ngezana and [Nkosinathi] Sibisi because very early they were already on a yellow to maybe play [Khuliso] Mudau closer as a lateral centre-back, so that I can bring in a [Tshepang] Moremi or a [Mohau] Nkota, or somebody that is going to cause problems to Nouho [Tolo], because Tolo got a yellow card very early in the game.
“But we never really challenged that that much and I think had we tried to be a little bit more aggressive, because we already had three centre-backs.
“But now, if Mudau is going to play in front of [Oswin] Appollis who is sitting on the line, it becomes very difficult to use the numerical superiority that we would have in the wide channels.
“And the same thing on the other side, with Rele [Relebohile Mofokeng] being scared of the combats inside, he would try to drift to the outside. Then [Samkelo] Kabini and Rele now, and if you look behind [Lyle] Foster there is a big gap that we did not exploit.
“I think the initial thinking as early as first half, was that there’d be Foster and the two wingers will come closer to Foster to form the double 10.
“Then you still have the workaholics of Teboho [Mokoena] and [Bathusi] Aubass behind then Mudau will be aggressive in the wide channels. And you expected a little bit better from Kabini, because I think a Modiba would have been the best option.
“You could even use a winger for that matter because if you saw the few moments where Moremi was on that left channel, because with the speed you needed to try to force those lateral centre-backs to try to come to you and open the space for a Mofokeng in between the lateral centre-back and the central centre-back to exploit that space by breaking the line and maybe find cut backs.
“But we did not get that, and we did not exploit the fact that their captain already had a yellow card very early in the match.”
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