ALTHOUGH they’ve qualified for the 2024 Afcon tournament Bafana Bafana are taking their game against Morocco as serious as ever.
Both teams meet on Saturday at FNB Stadium for the Qualifier games to be hosted in Ivory Coast.
Moroccans made history by reaching the elimination stages at the World Cup, and would like to take the same performance to Bafana this weekend.
But coach Hugo Broos is being cocky and said even if they lose, its ok, since they’ve progressed to Afcon games.
“Testing ourselves against those [Moroccan] players is very important for our team. If we lose that game, then okay, we lose. But I think for us it will be a good game to learn a lot again; and to know what we have to do and what we have to improve to have a good Afcon. If we should win, don’t think we’re world [class] team. This is not true either,” Broos was quoted.
The Belgian has on more than one occasion said that they’re the better team with better players in each position, attributing the team’s feat of making it to the World Cup semifinals in Qatar to their competence.
The likes of on-form Percy Tau (who is the first SA player to win two gold Africa champs medals with his Egyptian club Al Ahly), Thapelo Morena, Mokoena, Innocent Maela, and Lepasa on form, Bafana should give a good account against the visiting Morrocan side, who are not push-overs.
Some of the player’s went as far dedicating the game to the late former Bafana coach Clive “The Dog” Barker, who passed away this week due to ill-health at this home-town Durban.
Barker won the Afcon silverware and took the team to France for the country’s first ever World Cup appearance.
“This will be our dedication to coach “The Dog” for having done history in football for our country and the Continent,” they said.
The players also made a clarion call to everyone to come and rally behind them.
The team is based at the University of Pretoria’s High-Performance Centre where they are preparing for their final encounter.
Kick off against Morocco on Saturday at the FNB Stadium will be at 17:00.
Image (Bafana Bafana players hard at work preparing for Morocco, as Percy “Lion of Judah” Tau juggles the ball).
