Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has named his final 23-man squad for this month’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Benin.
Broos’ charges will host Lesdotho at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, Limpopo, on Human Rights Day, Friday, 21 March. They then fly to Côte d’Ivoire by charter to face Benin in the second qualifier a few days later. The Beninese will host the South African men’s senior national team in Côte d’Ivoire after their home grounds were deemed unsuitable for international matches. Kick off to the match in Polokwane is at 18h00.
Broos and team manager Vincent Tseka visited Polokwane a few days ago to inspect the pitch first-hand and the coach said he was happy with what he saw at Peter Mokaba Stadium.
There were initially concerns over the readiness of the pitch after the surface was damaged following a music concert in December last year.
“The moment they told me about Polokwane, the first thing I said, because I saw games played there on that pitch, I said first thing, if the pitch is not better, we don’t go and people started working and the pitch is fantastic,” he said.
“I was there last week, and beautiful, really beautiful. We don’t have an excuse if we don’t have the result we want against Lesotho, saying ‘yes the pitch was not good’. No, no, no, the pitch is fantastic, and people did fantastic work and I’m very happy with it.”
The Bafana squad:
