Seemingly forgotten Bafana Bafana attacker Bongokuhle Hlongwane once again proved his worth with valuable goal from his side as Minnesota United defeated Los Angeles.
Robin Lod opened the scoring as early as the 16th minute to put Minnesota ahead and Hlongwane, who came on a second-half substitute added a second to put Angles to the sword in the 88th minute.
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The goal was a second consecutive in two matches for the South African who also scored the match-winner as Minnesota defeated Orlando City 3-2 just a week prior.
Hlongwane’s form puts raises further questions about Bafana head coach Hugo Broos, who has opted against selecting the speedy attacker for the Africa Cup of Nations where South Africa returned with a Bronze medal.
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— Sahil Ebrahim (@sahil_e_) March 17, 2024
Bongokuhle Hlongwane with another goal for Minnesota United in the @MLS. ??
One of the few South Africans to play any minutes this weekend in the US, coming off the bench for @MNUFC at 70mins.????pic.twitter.com/yCDHmmgZBS
At the time, Broos attributed the snub to a lack of game-time for Hlongwane and Njabulo Blom who had not been in action since October and added that in Hlongwane’s case, the striker had not impressed enough to be included.
"The league MLS) stopped in October. Okay, they have been training, because Hlongwane is training with Maritzburg United and Blom is training with SuperSport [United] I think, but okay, they don’t play games for two months," Broos said in December.
"Don’t forget that AFCON is a very intense tournament, you need the rhythm of the game. It’s possible, but it’s difficult after two months without a game and it will be two months and a half because we only start AFCON (mid-January) and then suddenly, we have to be at a good level.
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"I think it is very difficult and for me, it was difficult also to choose [to leave them out]. Yes, I made my decision. "I think for Hlongwane, he was not really convincing in the last games he played with us."
Strangely, the former Maritzburg United man has also been omitted from the latest Bafana Bafana squad that will take on Andorra on Thursday and Algeria on Tuesday in two international friendlies as part of Bafana Bafana’s preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers currently underway.
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