With a celebratory beer on hand, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos had every reason to take personal glory for a first World Cup qualification in 23 years, but he chose to give credit to everyone involved with the senior national team.
Moments after Bafana thrashed Rwanda 3-0 through goals by Thalente Mbatha, Oswin Appollis and Evidence Makgopa at the Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday night to secure qualification for the 2026 Fifa World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada, the 73-year-old Belgian could feel satisfied.
Bafana, who last played in the World Cup as hosts in 2010 but last qualified for one in 2002, in South Korea and Japan, are among the nine African teams with Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia to have qualified for next year’s tournament.
“This is a fantastic evening for everyone, but it is not only about the coach,” Broos said.
“This is a team that has worked together for the past three years, and I can’t forget my staff because they helped me a lot, especially assistant coach Helman [Mkhalele].
“You know I like him very much and without him I would not have achieved this.
“There is also the medical staff, who worked day and night to have players ready to produce big performances.
“The kit manager, the security manager, the team manager and the media manager — we are a bunch of people who had only one goal, and that was to bring good performances.”
Broos also paid tribute to players who have made long-suffering Bafana a success again after two decades of woeful underachievement.
The coach’s turnaround has included third place at the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast and qualification for the next in Morocco in December and January.
Broos, who will retire from coaching after the World Cup, said he had been vindicated for some of the unpopular selection decisions he had taken.
“This is not for me alone, and I insist on talking about what the players have done over the past few years.
“I know you have not always agreed with the choices I made.
“I make my choices on different criteria than yours. For me it is important to have a player with quality, the right mentality and who can do what I ask him to do.
“Up to now, I have succeeded in doing that. You don’t build a team or have performances like that [randomly].
“You need to have a plan, and you must keep to that plan. This is what we did over the past few years.”
Broos said the World Cup qualification was important for the country.
“This is fantastic for the nation. I heard someone saying Bafana was a joke, but now we are there on the high level and everybody respects us.
“At last, this is something this nation needed.
“We need to have a different way to look at football and to judge players, and I hope at the Africa Cup of Nations we will try to do as well as the last one or go better.
“I hope with those high-level tournaments in America, players will have the opportunity to go to higher competitions.
“If we can make that step in the future, you will see SA get better than they are now.
“Don’t ask me what my emotions are right now because I don’t know. I hope every member of the group goes to America.
“For me it is sentimental because I was at the World Cup in Mexico at the end of my career as a player.
“I am going to do it again as a coach and it will be the right moment after the World Cup to stop my career and go to my family and enjoy the next 20 years with my grandchildren.
“Before that, though, there is a lot of work to be done, and I will try to do it well.”
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