Hugo Broos was right – Teboho Mokoena

Mokoena has once again been a key figure for South Africa, retaining his place in the squad that finished third at the previous AFCON.

Speaking ahead of Bafana’s round of 16 clash against Cameroon at the Al Medina Stadium in Rabat on Sunday night, the midfielder revealed insights into recent conversations with Broos about the competitiveness of the tournament.

"We had a talk with the coach and he said, the same teams you beat in the last AFCON won't be making the same mistakes in Morocco. The standard is definitely higher."

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The Mamelodi Sundowns talisman added that it was the Bafana players’ intention to give Broos a send-off at his last AFCON with the team by winning the title.

"Of course the travelling is hard for everyone but the goal is go all the way to the final. Some of these things are noises from the outside, but the guys in camp know exactly what we want and why we are here, and the focus is to win this tournament for the coach to give him a beautiful send off."

Mokoena also touched on leadership roles within the team and analysed exactly where they went wrong in the group stages, where they failed to keep a clean sheet and suffered defeat to Egypt.

"Our team is full of leaders. Sibisi is the captain of Orlando Pirates, Williams is the captain of Sundowns, and I'm the vice-captain of Mamelodi Sundowns, so there is great leadership in the team and we are all leaders in the dressing room at the end of the day."