‘We beat ourselves’ – Manqoba Mngqithi reflects on Bafana AFCON exit

LAMONTVILLE Golden Arrows coach Manqoba Mngqithi believes Bafana Bafana’s early exit from the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) was largely self-inflicted, questioning whether head coach Hugo Broos was as sharp as he had been in the previous tournament.

South Africa returned home early that expected after being eliminated in the Round of 16 by Cameroon, a defeat that sparked debate despite Bafana having won two of their three group-stage matches and losing only once overall.

While results suggested progress, performances left many unconvinced, with scrutiny intensifying around Broos’ tactical decisions — particularly his use of a 3-4-3 formation against Cameroon.

Mngqithi, speaking on Prime Time Sports on UKhozi FM, suggested that Broos deviated from the clarity and decisiveness that earned Bafana a bronze medal at the last AFCON.

“Hugo did a lot well that we have to commend him for but in this AFCON I don’t think he was as focused as he was in the previous one,” said Mngqithi.

“The mistakes he made in this one were elementary ones because I think he is a top coach.”

A key concern for the Arrows mentor was Broos’ team selection, particularly his decision to bench Tshepang Moremi and Aubrey Modiba — two players who had impressed earlier in the tournament.

“If I can make an example with the Cameroon game...,” Mngqithi continued.

“He made a mistake by benching two players who had played impressively before – Moremi and Modiba.”

Mngqithi felt the tactical plan failed to exploit Cameroon’s aggressive approach, especially on transition — an area where Bafana could have hurt their opponents.

“Before the game, I was thinking that we would need to have people that would exploit the space behind Cameroon,” he said.

“Moremi would have been the best candidate for that because we knew that Cameroon would try to come at us.”

According to Mngqithi, the lack of a clear counter-attacking outlet blunted Bafana’s ability to punish Cameroon when opportunities arose.

“We should have had a plan that if they come at us and we want to hit them with a counter, we must know what we have behind their defence,” he explained.

There were moments that hinted at what could have been, with Modiba delivering dangerous balls into the box once introduced.

“It showed when Modiba put in two good balls into the box, Mudau or Foster should have scored one of them,” Mngqithi noted.

Despite his criticism, Mngqithi stopped short of discrediting Broos’ overall work, instead framing the elimination as a lesson missed rather than dominance conceded.

“But the truth is I think in this tournament, we were not beaten, we beat ourselves,” he concluded.

For Bafana, the post-mortem now begins — with hard questions around selection, tactical flexibility and whether fine margins, rather than flaws in quality, once again proved decisive on the continental stage.