Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says his team was undercooked in their first two African Cup of Nations Group K qualifiers against Uganda and South Sudan respectively.
On both occasions, South Africa were rescued by added-time strikes from replacement midfielder Thalente Mbatha as they played to a 2-2 draw at home to Uganda and beat South Sudan 3-2 away on Tuesday.
The results leave them with four points from a possible six, as the players now return to their clubs for the start of the PSL before facing Congo in their third match next month.
Broos reckons they will be sharper for the two matches against Congo, explaining: “The big problem we have is that our players didn’t play competitive games [before the first two matches] – 80 percent of our players only played pre-season friendly games.
“We are not sharp enough, this is not the South African team we know from other games. Secondly, individual mistakes can happen, but now we have two games with individual mistakes. The two goals of Sudan are two defensive mistakes we made – something we have to do better.
“Certainly next month against Congo it will be better, because then the players would have played more competitive games with the PSL starting this week. There was a lack of sharpness in our game.”
According to Broos his manne should’ve beaten South Sudan 5-2, with the Belgian saying: “In the first half we could have scored more – the game could have been done after 45 minutes.
“But okay, we hit the post and whatever. Those chances have to be goals. Again we put ourselves in problems, but it was a happy ending at the end of the day…
“The good Lord upstairs is with us for the two games. [But] we should have done better...”