Hugo Broos has surely done enough to be forgiven for drawing a friendly against Andorra. Picture: Djaffar Ladjal/BackpagePixAfter all, this tiny European nation, population f**k all, have been cannon fodder across Uefa qualifying for about 20 years now.
South Africa head coach Hugo Broos said before and after their 1-1 draw that Andorra don’t lose their matches by much these days, even though they usually lose. But 3-0 defeats to Kosovo and Switzerland and a 4-0 pummeling by Romania, all coming since September of last year, would beg to differ. Broos would have been better off leaning more on other extenuating circumstances than Andorra’s quality. He picked a very experimental side for this game, with four debutants, and on the back of a 30 hour journey across the continent from South Africa to Annaba in Algeria.
As Broos did also point out, Bafana would have won the game easily, too, with better finishing, and without a calamitous piece of goalkeeping early in the game from Ricardo Goss.The main point, however, is that this is a Bafana team just coming off finishing third at the Africa Cup of Nations. The embarrassment of drawing with Andorra in a friendly is easily tempered by the memories of their achievements in the Ivory Coast, where they exceeded expectations where it really mattered.
Broos and Bafana’s recent track record deserves our trust.