IN James Bond parlance, Bafana Bafana manager Hugo Broos was shaken but not stirred after goalkeeper Veli Mothwa’s howlers ruined his best-laid plans in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Uganda at Orlando Stadium on Friday night.
Debutant Thalente Mbatha rescued Bafana with an injury-time equaliser after Mothwa conceded two quick goals for the visitors.
The 2-2 result was not what Broos had envisaged from this opening Group K clash. After Lyle Foster’s early goal it seemed the South Africans were headed for a victorious opening gambit.
However, early in the second stanza, Mothwa failed to deal with two long-range shots and Uganda turned the match on its head.
Mothwa, the AmaZulu first choice keeper, would have been one of the players in the national squad who had not yet played a match this season, and Broos had raised his concerns about this.
In the run-up to the match Broos mentioned that Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Sipho Chaine would be the likely choice to fill in for the injured Ronwen Williams.
However, Mothwa was the starting goalkeeper and afterwards Broos shied away from media questions regarding his choice. Chaine already has five matches under his belt this season. Something very likely happened before the start that made Broos select Mothwa instead.
Despite the goalkeeper’s howlers, Broos stood by his choice. He also showed his human side by feeling sorry for Mothwa.
“This (a selection mistake) is something you know after the game,” said Broos. “You don’t know it before a match. If Veli does not make that error then maybe we would have won the game. Those mistakes can happen to every goalkeeper.
“I don’t regret that I put him in goal. Now we had a chance to see how he is. He’s very disappointed.
“We (the technical staff) have much work to do to restore his confidence. He has suffered a bit mentally and we’ll see if it’s possible. I don’t regret playing Veli today in goal at all.
“It’s not a nice thing when you make a mistake like that. As a keeper, you know what you did wrong and could have cost the game with that blunder. He’s really down for the moment.
“It would have been a disaster if we lost this game, but now with this point, it gives us a boost going to South Sudan. We have to review things we need to do for that game and try to have a sharper team on the pitch. It will not be easy.”
Uganda’s coach Paul Put hailed his side’s second-half display and two-minute goal frenzy thanks to strikes from Denis Omedi and Rogers Mato, but felt the East Africans had too much respect for Bafana.
“I think we were very lucky in the first half. We were not in the game. We were nowhere. I didn’t recognise my players, they were playing like children with too much respect for South Africa and we were lucky that we only conceded one goal,” said Put.
“We had some talks during half-time in the dressing room and I told them that we have to do it another way and that we have to show the real Uganda like we did against Botswana and Algeria.
“In the second half, we saw a much better team with more aggression, more creativity. We scored from long-distance shots, which is also part of the game. But in the beginning, if you could come to South Africa and sign for a draw, you would be happy.”
Broos is expected to make several changes to the side to play South Sudan in Juba on Tuesday (3pm kick-off). He said: “You can be sure there will be changes in the team, that’s for sure.”