South Africa dazzler Percy Tau has explained that they resorted to long ball tactics during their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Nigeria because they noticed that Leon Balogun was injured.
The Brighton & Hove central defender had to play through the pain barrier against Bafana Bafana and will miss tomorrow's friendly against Uganda as a result of the injury he suffered.
Gernot Rohr lined up his team in a 3-5-2 formation, with Balogun playing on the right side of central defense, Omeruo on the left and Troost-Ekong in the center.
''(There were) five defenders and two central midfielders that were in front of the five, so it was difficult for us to get those pockets and then we felt they were tired because of the heat and the right centre-back (Balogun) was injured so we felt that we could get behind them and score and it didn’t work out,'' Tau said in a press conference after the game.
South Africa coach Stuart Baxter added : ''But like Percy said, 'it may work because they’re tired', whatever I think it's a lesson there, for that we have to stick to what we (good at) because that brings the best out of our players.''
Nigeria secured passage to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations following their 1-1 draw with South Africa at Soccer City.
Igho Kingsley
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