Captain Williams backs Bafana Bafana game-plan but one former national team star disagrees

[p]Bafana Bafana received two red cards and had goalkeeper [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/williams-ronwen/lQRX0UzA/"]Ronwen Williams[/a] to thank for keeping the score down as they battled with the movement of [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/mexico/O6iHcNkd/"]Mexico[/a] and the pace of the game.[/p][p]Their attempts to play out from the back were dangerous and ill-advised, and led to the opening goal for the hosts as Williams passed to midfielder [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/yaya-sithole/8QxUv8F5/"]Yaya Sithole[/a], who lost possession on the edge of his box.[/p][embed guid="dcaef1b7-7d67-4f63-853a-6620e996e9b2" url="https://x.com/BafanaBafana/status/2065182655969182061?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Captain Williams says they will take the lessons from this game into their second match against the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/czech-republic/6LHwBDGU/"]Czech Republic[/a] on Thursday next week in Atlanta, and know they have to learn fast.[/p][p][b]“You don’t want to concede in the first 20 minutes, and that’s exactly what happened,” [/b]Williams said. [b]“We wanted to settle the nerves, the anxiety, but obviously, at this level, you make a mistake, they punish you. We got into the game, caught them on the break, but our final passes let us down.[/b][/p][p][b]“There are lots of lessons to take, I am proud of the boys, the effort, they didn’t stop, they kept fighting. There are a lot of lessons we can take from this, we need to analyse our mistakes and not give up because there are still two games to play."[/b][/p][image alt="Bafana Bafana player ratings" id="0b275db5-d743-4168-a10a-cf1be754a789" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="8d0f45f2-c8c6-4d23-a7ae-c5c3cce4782b" original-width="1200" original-height="1200" /][p]Coach Hugo Broos has come under fire for a tactical change to three central defenders and two strikers up front, a formation Bafana have never used in their five years under him.[/p][p]It was an odd time to introduce it, but Williams backed the plans of the coach.[/p][p]"[b]Most of the games Mexico played in the last year they played with a back five as well,”[/b] he said. [b]“We wanted to go with the same approach but have an extra number in the midfield.[/b][/p][p][b]“They obviously changed and came with a back four, we had a good game plan but we made that mistake in the first half and that allowed them to get on the front foot."[/b][/p][image alt="Match statistics" id="5b621200-ef22-4ed2-9608-2d88ac1e5a19" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="122e326d-42f9-4089-9d5b-2de1cae3366f" original-width="1200" original-height="1200" /][p]Former national team goalkeeper [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/khune-itumeleng/tEvPYnu7/"]Itumeleng Khune[/a], who was sent off against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/uruguay/xMk44orG/"]Uruguay[/a] in 2010, says Broos got his tactics wrong.[/p][p][b]“It’s not the result we were expecting and the performance, of course,” [/b]he told SABC. [b]“The guys could’ve done better. But I think coach Hugo Broos started negatively, the way we started playing, the formation.[/b][/p][p][b]“Towards the dying minutes of the game when he put in (Evidence) [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/makgopa-evidence/riFLkbEo/"]Makgopa[/a], I think it’s exactly how we should’ve started because we were playing with two strikers, a pacy striker and a tall striker.[/b][/p][p][b]“If we had started with Makgopa, those flick-ons, I think ([a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/rayners-iqraam/8M2gNoUh/"]Iqraam[/a]) Rayners would’ve had chances to run behind the defence and keep the goalkeeper busy, because the keeper only made that one save from (Mbekezeli) [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mbokazi-mbekezile/zg795kmf/"]Mbokazi[/a] in the first half and the rest he was watching.”[/b][/p]