COACH CONFIDENT FOR LIBERIANS

SOUTH Africa coach Hugo Broos has a “positive feeling” ahead of his team’s crucial Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Liberia at Orlando Stadium this evening.

After enduring a poor start to the qualifiers, losing to Morocco away from home last year, Bafana have a chance of getting their campaign up and running in Soweto.

Registering their first win in Group K – which only has three teams after Zimbabwe were banned – will see them take a step closer to qualifying for the finals.

But they would need to beat the Liberians in their back-to-back qualifiers, or accumulate four points and have a better head-to-head advantage and goal difference for that to happen.

Broos is not thinking about the second leg in Monrovia as yet though as the silver-haired Belgian has been putting all his attention in tonight’s clash.

And judging from what he’s seen at training, he's quite confident that his troops can secure the three points.

“The fact that you think I look calm is because of what I see at training. I see how the group behaves themselves and I think we will be ready tomorrow to have a great performance,” Broos said.

“But again this will not be enough as we will see how the opponent will be tomorrow. But I see the will to perform at training and it gives me a positive feeling.”

Broos’ team’s three victories against Sierra Leone, Botswana and Mozambique, and a draw against

Angola in recent friendlies, were nothing to write home given their low rankings – and that’s why returning Bafana to the biennial African competition for the first time since 2019 would quieten the doubters and Broos is confident that’s exactly what he’ll do.

After all, he’s got a buzzing camp that includes a host of high quality players, such as Percy Tau, Lyle Foster and Mihlali Mayambela, who are on top of their games.

“The more good players, the better. I never had a problem with a good player. I have always had a problem with players who think they are good but their performance is not good,” Broos said.

“All the 23 players are motivated, and even yesterday we had a tactical training session, and the players who could feel that they will not be part of the team on Friday still gave their best,” said Broos yesterday.

“They are happy to be here.

That means that they are not disappointed, and it means I can count on them if I need to make changes tomorrow.”

The return of Tau to full fitness augurs well for Broos. He’s the team’s vice captain and expected to lead on and off the pitch.

“I think Percy, little by little, is again at his best level. For me, certainly here, at (Mamelodi) Sundowns he was the best player in his team,” Broos said.

“He is fresh again and I see it also in training.

“Before last year, he looked like he had 50kg on each leg. Now he is fresh and he takes action. He is the Percy Tau I like and that I know from Belgium.”