Bafana boss Hugo Broos insisted he was satisfied with his side’s performance in their 1-1 friendly draw with Andorra on Thursday night.
South Africa found themselves a goal down early on when Ricard Betriu opened the scoring at the 19 May 1956 Stadium after just five minutes.
Elias Mokwana retored parity though when he levelled with 25 minutes on the clock to ensure that Broos’ side at least came away from the tie with a draw, ahead of facing Algeria on Tuesday.
Broos was experimenting with a very different Bafana side from the one that came third at the recent Africa Cup of Nations, and admitted they did struggle to impose themselves onto their more physical European counterparts.
Thapelo Xoki, Patrick Maswanganyi, Elias Mokwana and Mlondi Mbanjwa were all making their international debuts in the tie, and it was a mistake from goalkeeper Ricardo Goss that allowed Andorra to take an early lead.
Reflecting on the performance, Broos said on SABC after the game: “We saw today what I said before the game, this is a team that is very defensive and physical. They always look for the duels and play the man first, that is their style.
“It is very difficult, they lose nearly every game but always only by one goal. That could have happened today, we gave it (a goal) away easily, but after that we had six or seven good chances to score.”
Broos added: “I am satisfied, not with the result, we tried to win, but I am satisfied with the performance. This is a totally new team and some players gave me much satisfaction. I think these are players we can count on for the games in June and and at the end of the year.”
South Africa are using these two games as preparations for their World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe in June.