Poor finishing frustrates Broos as France loom

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has sounded frustrated about the side's bluntness in front of goal, bemoaning the lack of a lethal finisher in SA. 

Broos’s frustration stems from Bafana’s failure to score, despite creating an avalanche of chances, in their goalless stalemate against Guinea in Belgium on Friday. SA will be hoping for an improved offensive display when they take on France in another friendly in Lille on Tuesday (9.15pm SA time).  

“We know that SA don’t really have a top scorer who needs only one chance to score. It’s something that has to do with confidence. The day we start scoring, that problem will be solved,” said Broos.

“It’s difficult to fix the problem of not converting chances. It’s up to the players... as a coach you can only give them confidence, especially the strikers. You mustn’t talk too much about it because it’s already in their heads that they didn’t score.”

Apart from their poor return upfront, Broos was satisfied with how his charges applied themselves against Guinea. Lyle Foster, who plays for Belgian second-tier outfit Westerlo, and Orlando Pirates’ Bandile Shandu were the players guilty of squandering easy chances.

“I think we had a good performance. I saw a good game and a good mentality. The only negative of that game is that we didn’t score... we had six, seven good chances. We have to score at least two if we have six, seven chances. It was a friendly game but it didn’t show because the mentality of our players was good,” stated Broos.

Broos maintained that he would tweak the XI against France, suggesting Nyiko Mobbie will start at right-back and Lyle Lakay at left-back. Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Fagrie Lakay, who only linked up with the team on Friday, are also expected to start against France.

“There’ll be a different team against France because I said that I will give all players minutes. Players like Mobbie and Lyle Lakay will play against France to show their qualities,” noted Broos.