Exclusive: Muhsin Ertugral Highlights Fragile Psychology and Calls for Club Cohesion After Bafana’s AFCON Exit

World Renowned coach Muhsin Ertugral highlighted the seemingly fragile player psychologies in Bafana Bafana's round of 16 AFCON exit, where they went down 1-2 against Cameroon in Morocco, and calls for Bafana coach Hugo Broos to promote cohesion with clubs ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

Player Psychology

In hindsight, perhaps the biggest down fall for Bafana Bafana in last night 1-2 loss to Cameroon, was the rather disappointing body language that the players displayed for the majority of the match. 

Now, it is important to note and recognise how Bafana had Cameroon on the backfoot in the opening 20 minutes of the game and perhaps in the final 15 minutes of the clash. 

The South Africans created three chances in the opening 20 minutes of the match, chances that they really should have buried. Instead, Lyle Foster and Relebohile Mofokeng missed from close range. 

After the 20-minute mark, Cameroon seemed to have adjusted to Bafana's strategy and tactics, and adjusted accordingly, leading to their first goal of the match. 

From there on in, the Bafana players dropped their heads, and the body language was just not the same as Cameroon dictated terms and played much aggressively. 

"It is the way of, let me say, the team from the psychological point of view," Ertugral told SportsBoom.co.za in an exclusive interview, suggesting that Bafana have the tendency to drop heads under pressure, displaying a rather fragile psychology. 

"I was just speaking to a friend of mine about it. The point here in South Africa is that you could see Mokwena is the one that pulls the socks up, puts the arms up and will fight into it. You could see from the moment when Cameroon was leading, they were very aggressive. You could see Cameroon was up to it to defend their lead."

"So, this is a pressure situation that, for me, is always a concern that when it comes under pressure that the other characters come out."

"I remember, I was just saying, we don't have these Benny McCarthys, we don't have these players such as your Steven Piënaars and Doctor Khumalos."

"Players that say, 'okay, the sleeves come up now and even if they're better than us, we're going to put up with them and put the light on a little bit more on the aggressiveness. So, (last night with Bafana Bafana), that didn't happen."

Bafana-Clubs Cohesion

Bafana Bafana now have about five months to get ready for the 2026 FIFA World Cup opener against co-hosts Mexico. 

Ertugral calls for Broos and SAFA to emphasise on the cohesion between the national team and the clubs to monitor the progress of the players ahead of the showpiece event. 

"There must be very close communication with the teams (to monitor) performances for the next three, four, five months. That is very much important for the players. And you build those relations from the federation to the teams and I think that can be better," Ertugral told SportsBoom.co.za.

"I'm sure that the clubs will definitely assist the national team. So, these are the communications and the bridges (that have to be built), I think, on that way. Then you can prepare the players already individually, how you want to set up the system. I think Hugo Broos, the coach, he does know. He's a very experienced coach."

"I think we all need to make his life a bit more easier. Also the people who are surrounding the coach, put the ego aside. That's a country issue. And no one is higher than the national team. So, I think there needs to be cohesion and the bridges between the national team and the individual teams."

"That's what we did with the Turkish national team. When I was involved with Turkey especially for the international players. I was in Milan, I was in Leicester, I was in Lille, where all of our players were playing."

"I would get the ideas of what they're doing and then get the training session, the planning and then they wanted to know our training session planning. And so there is a cohesion and we know which system are they playing and which system suits you. All these things, there is a lot of work behind the scenes."

"So, if they can make the coach's life a bit more easier, I think that's the next challenge that Hugo Broos is facing. But definitely not any discussion in the direction of the coach. I think he's given South African football an identity. And you can see the team is much more better than the previous years we had. So that shouldn't be any discussion from anyone," he concluded.