{"id":156180,"date":"2025-03-22T23:39:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T22:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection"},"modified":"2025-04-04T12:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T11:22:49","slug":"2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection","title":{"rendered":"2026 WCQ: You can\u2019t do that against Nigeria \u2013 South Africa\u2019s coach Broos on team selection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>South Africa\u2019s coach Hugo Broos has said he could only take the risk of handing Relebohile Mofokeng his full debut against a team like Lesotho and would not attempt such against Nigeria.<\/p>\n

He explained that such opportunities are not given in high-pressure matches against top sides like Nigeria.<\/p>\n

The Orlando Pirates forward started on Friday evening as Bafana Bafana secured a 2-0 victory over Lesotho in a 2026 World Cup qualifying match.<\/p>\n

Before the game, the 20-year-old\u2019s five previous caps for South Africa had all come as a substitute. He was an unused substitute in his first call-up for a competitive fixture when Nigeria and South Africa played out a 1-1 draw in Uyo back in June.<\/p>\n

Mofokeng caused constant problems for Lesotho and capped his fine performance with a goal in the 60th minute.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at the post-match press conference, Broos said that starting young players can be a big risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this game was the right moment for Rele, he played a very good game and this is what we need. When you put a young guy in the team, as a coach, you always have to consider whether they can succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he doesn\u2019t, can you imagine if he had a bad game? Then everyone would say, \u2018Yeah, yeah, maybe it\u2019s too soon, maybe he\u2019s not that good, blah, blah, blah.\u2019 So you have to help the player with that… but this was also the right opponent for such a move.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t do that against Nigeria, or maybe not for the first time in Benin, because those are completely different games,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. South Africa\u2019s coach Hugo Broos has said he could only take the risk of handing Relebohile Mofokeng his full debut against a team like Lesotho and would not attempt such against Nigeria. He explained that such opportunities are not given in high-pressure matches against top sides like Nigeria. The Orlando Pirates forward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":156179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[10858,12652,254,556],"class_list":["post-156180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-2026-wcq","tag-broos","tag-nigeria","tag-south-africa"],"yoast_head":"\n2026 WCQ: You can\u2019t do that against Nigeria \u2013 South Africa\u2019s coach Broos on team selection - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South Africa\u2019s coach Hugo Broos has said he could only take the risk of handing Relebohile Mofokeng his full debut again ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2026 WCQ: You can\u2019t do that against Nigeria \u2013 South Africa\u2019s coach Broos on team selection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"South Africa\u2019s coach Hugo Broos has said he could only take the risk of handing Relebohile Mofokeng his full debut again ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-22T22:39:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T11:22:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742674296.002792.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"2026 WCQ: You can\u2019t do that against Nigeria \u2013 South Africa\u2019s coach Broos on team selection\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-22T22:39:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-04T11:22:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection\"},\"wordCount\":303,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742674296.002792.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2026 WCQ\",\"Broos\",\"Nigeria\",\"South africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-you-cant-do-that-against-nigeria-south-africas-coach-broos-on-team-selection\",\"name\":\"2026 WCQ: You can\u2019t do that against Nigeria \u2013 South Africa\u2019s coach Broos on team selection - 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