Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos nearly admitted that he was made to eat humble after Themba Zwane led the senior national football team to a convincing 4-0 victory over Sierra Leone at FNB Stadium on Saturday. 

Zwane, who has been one of the most consistent players in the Premier Soccer League and was overlooked by Broos, capped his return in style as he netted a brace to help Bafana beat the Leone Stars in a friendly.

Broos was full of praise for the playmaker and said his impact was the missing link in the Bafana set-up previously.

“I’m not a coach who has special mentions for some players, but what Zwane did today was great,” Broos told the media after the match.

“Maybe he was the missing link in our team. The guy who can keep the ball, the guy who can gives passes and the guy who can score. I’m very happy with him. He took a long time, but you know my philosophy, first of all the youngsters and then we will see.”

Despite continued outcries and criticism from the public, Broos said he must be given credit for the change of heart as the 33-year-old midfielder showed he deserves to be on the national team.

“I think everybody has to appreciate the change of mind. This is not easy for the coach when he said three or four months ago, no, but suddenly picked him,” he said.

“But I’m not afraid to do that. Themba showed today that he deserves his position in the team, very happy about the performance.”

After that impressive win, Broos wants to see more of the same when they host Botswana at the same venue tomorrow at 6pm.

“I’m a happy coach, not only that we won 4-0, but also, our three last games. I think the negativity around Bafana Bafana was so big that we needed that today. It is not only the performance on the pitch but also the chances we had and the goals we scored.

“So we won a lot of confidence today and this was a very important goal before those two friendly games, and I hope the team will do the same thing against Botswana. It is not enough, we are happy now and we must be happy after the game against Botswana and I expect the same mentality and the same performance as what they did against Sierra Leone.”