South Africa’s Hugo Broos ready for Afcon reunion with Cameroon
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South Africa coach Hugo Broos shaking hands with midfielder Mohau Nkota after the 3-2 Africa Cup of Nations win over Zimbabwe on Dec 29.
PHOTO: AFP
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RABAT – Coach Hugo Broos is hoping to lead South Africa to Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) glory in Morocco, but standing in his team’s way in the last 16 on Jan 4 are Cameroon, the side with whom he won an unlikely continental title in 2017.
The showdown at the Stade Al Medina in Rabat has the makings of a fascinating contest between a Bafana Bafana side building towards the World Cup and a Cameroon team that entered the Afcon in disarray.
Cameroon Football Federation president and Indomitable Lions legend Samuel Eto’o sacked national team coach Marc Brys just weeks before the competition started, replacing him with local David Pagou.
Belgian Brys had just overseen a play-off defeat against the Democratic Republic of Congo in the same Rabat stadium where they will return this weekend.
That ended Cameroon’s hopes of making it to the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, but they have bounced back so far at Afcon.
They beat Gabon 1-0 and Mozambique 2-1 and drew 1-1 with the Ivory Coast in Group F.
Broos knows all about how dangerous Cameroon can be coming into an Afcon tournament despite the turmoil.
He led a makeshift Indomitable Lions squad, missing some of their biggest names who had refused to accept call-ups, to the title in Gabon in 2017.
“If you told someone before the tournament we would get to the final, they would have laughed, but this for us was a big motivation,” Broos said at the time.
Fast-forward nine years and his focus now is on bettering South Africa’s performance at the last Afcon in the Ivory Coast in 2024, when they reached the semi-finals and eventually finished third.
Broos, now aged 73, has also led Bafana Bafana to qualification for the upcoming World Cup, their first appearance since hosting the tournament in 2010.
Before that, a tough path through the Afcon knockout stages awaits South Africa and Broos, whose approach to the competition was marred by allegations of racist and sexist remarks.
The Belgian apologised in December after comments made about defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi and the agent who handled the player’s recently agreed transfer from Orlando Pirates to Chicago Fire.
He is certainly not afraid of speaking out, and criticism of the atmosphere at this Afcon cannot have gone down well with organisers or with the South African president of the Confederation of African Football, Patrice Motsepe.
“I don’t feel the same vibe as what I felt in Ivory Coast and in Gabon,” Broos said.
“I don’t know how to explain it but in Ivory Coast and Gabon, every second of the tournament you felt that you were in a tournament.
“When we went with the bus to train, people were waving flags and here you feel nothing.
“There is no typical Afcon vibe. I don’t feel it here.”
He has also not been entirely pleased with his team, who needed late goals to beat Angola 2-1 and Zimbabwe 3-2 in the group stage, either side of a 1-0 loss against Egypt.
Broos says they keep “falling asleep after taking leads” and will expect an improvement against Cameroon.
Remarkably, it will be just the second meeting of the sides at the Afcon – the only previous clash came in their opening group game in 1996, when hosts South Africa triumphed 3-0 on the way to winning the trophy.
The victors on Jan 4 will face either hosts and favourites Morocco or Tanzania in the quarter-finals. AFP
