Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos started it. He said Orlando Pirates’ Patrick Maswanganyi could be the next Themba Zwane in his team.
ORLANDO PIRATES STAR PATRICK MASWANGANYI A DIFFERENT PLAYER TO THEMBA ZWANE
According to Vilakazi, both Zwane and Maswanganyi deliver the same role, but how each footballer does it is different.
“The mistake is comparing Maswanganyi and Mshishi those are two different type of players,” said Vilakazi on iDiski TV, as quoted by Lethabo Kganyago.
“How they play, their intelligence, their smartness in terms of trying to breakdown the defensc, you know assisting the strikers and being a link between the defensive players and the striker. There is a lot that I can mention between the two.
“Yes I can question his game but again he didn’t get support from the midfield. We’ve got players that play back passes and when you have those kind of players, it’s always going to be a problem, meaning the attacking midfielder is not going to play because every time Mosele got the ball, he goes back.
“And if you are playing against English teams, for example, you give them time to organise themselves in terms of defence, and that’s what these guys [Andorra] did,” the Pirates legend added.
“They did very well in terms of defence. They allowed us to play in front of them and the worst part is that, even when they allowed us to have the ball, we didn’t have those direct passes in the middle.
“And when you go wide who’s going to head the ball? You cannot use width when you know you don’t have players like Shawn Bartlett, George Koumantarakis or Pollen Ndlanya. We don’t have those kind of players. So what’s the point of going wide and bringing in those crosses,” the former Pirates and Bafana midfielder concluded.
ALGERIA VS BAFANA BAFANA
Meanwhile, Bafana took the spotlight last week since returning from Afcon 2023 with bronze medals. Another match is coming tomorrow evening.
In a two-match FIFA series, Bafana first took on European minnows Andorra last Tuesday in Annaba, Algeria. The result was a 1-1 score, where debutant Elias Mokwana equalised in the 25th minute after Ricard Betriu scored for Andorra after five minutes.
Coach Broos said he was impressed by some of the individual performances but was not so pleased by the result.
“You saw today what I said before the game: that they are a team that plays very defensive, physical, always look for the duel. Their style is first go for the man and then the ball,” the Bafana boss said via TimesLIVE.
“They lose nearly every game, and it is always with one goal difference, and it could have happened today also because we gave the goal away easily. But we had about six to seven chances to score, and even with that little present we gave to Andorra today, we could have won this game.
“I am satisfied, not with the result because I would have liked to win the match, but I am satisfied with the performance of this totally new team. I am satisfied with some players who gave me satisfaction,” the Bafana tactician concluded.
Bafana will take on Algeria in Algiers on Tuesday night. The game is set to kick off at 23:00 from the Stade Nelson Mandela Stadium.
The match is expected to be televised on SABC 1 and SuperSport 202.