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Days of SA taking opponents lightly over – Dolly

'I think attitude is the difference between previous squad and current one'

Sihle Ndebele Journalist
Keagen Dolly during the South African national soccer team training session at Dobsonville Stadium.
Keagen Dolly during the South African national soccer team training session at Dobsonville Stadium.
Image: Lefty Shivambu

Having been a key member of Bafana Bafana in the pre-Hugo Broos era, Keagan Dolly has given the lowdown on the difference between the current national team squad and the previous groups.

Dolly is in his first national team camp under Broos, preparing for the last two Group G World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Ghana home and away. Bafana lock horns with Zimbabwe at FNB Stadium tomorrow (9pm).

The 28-year-old Dolly, who accumulated his 19 Bafana Bafana caps under four different coaches – Owen da Gama, Shakes Mashaba, Stuart Baxter and Molefi Ntseki, is of the view that the difference between the previous Bafana squad and the current one is that the latter doesn't undermine opponents before matches.

“Going to each game, we should know that there’s no easy game. In the past, one of our problems was that we underestimated teams. Teams like Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe gave us hard times because we told ourselves they were pushovers,’’ said Dolly.

“The current team has shown great attitude in all the games they have played so far. I think the attitude is the difference between previous squad and the current one.”

The lad from Westbury in Johannesburg has scored fives goals, racking up four assists from 11 games across the MTN8 and the league for Amakhosi this season. These impressive statistics are the reason Dolly has returned to Bafana. Dolly has heaped praise on coach Broos for making players believe they can reach greater heights.

“He [Broos] gives players belief and that’s what we need as a country. We need to believe that we can qualify for all these major tournaments and coach Broos is the right guy to help us achieve that,’’ said Dolly.

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