Coach Hugo Broos has completely ruled out Thembinkosi Lorch for the national team. Broos says Lorch is not consistent enough, had past troubles, and doesn’t work hard enough for his team. Even though Lorch is playing well now, Broos wants players who perform well all the time, not just sometimes. He believes numbers can lie and focuses on a player’s full effort, not just goals. This decision has sparked big debates among fans and experts.
Why is Thembinkosi Lorch not playing for Bafana Bafana?
Hugo Broos, the Bafana Bafana coach, has permanently excluded Thembinkosi Lorch due to perceived inconsistency, past disciplinary issues, and a failure to meet the team’s rigorous tactical and work-rate demands. Broos emphasizes sustained performance and commitment over sporadic brilliance, despite Lorch’s recent good form at Wydad Casablanca.
Hugo Broos has closed the chapter for good. Thembinkosi Lorch, once the face of Orlando Pirates and a national-team darling, will never again pull on the green and gold while the Belgian holds the clipboard – full stop. The 71-year-old’s recent press-room tirade has reopened a fiery discussion about how South Africa picks its players, whether past sins can be forgiven, and what “form” actually means when the flag is at stake.
When reporters filed into the auditorium they expected a routine squad read-out; instead they got a cross-examination. Broos recycled one name over and over, mocking the lobby campaign: “Lorch, Lorch, Lorch – I’m sick of hearing it.” He challenged the room to cite one outstanding Lorch performance since 2021 and answered his own question with a blunt “nobody saw one.” The message was surgical: three months of Moroccan spice cannot mask two years of bland football.
The remark lit up radio call-ins and township street corners. Supporters who still wave Pirates flags emblazoned with “Nyoso” feel the coach has moved from principled to petty. Broos, however, sees it as protecting culture: one bad apple of inconsistency can rot the whole basket. Whether history will celebrate his resolve or ridicule his rigidity is a story still being written.
Raw Stats vs. The Eye Test: Do Goals in Casablanca Count?
Since touching down at Wydad Casablanca, the winger has featured in 28 competitive fixtures, hitting the net eight times and creating four more. This campaign alone he has five goals and four assists in only eleven matches. Those figures stack up favourably against several forwards Broos selected for the latest camp, yet the coach waves the print-out away. “Numbers lie when attitude hides,” he said, insisting he studies clips with the sound off, hunting for defensive buy-in first.
Broos demands a footballing CV that stretches beyond a quarterly surge. He wants proof, year after year, that a player will sprint back in the 93rd minute as happily as he bombs forward in the third. In Lorch’s case, the ledger still shows more nightclub headlines than ninety-minute heat-maps, and the Belgian has no appetite for another gamble. Consistency, in his world, is not a streak; it is a lifestyle.
Critics counter that every professional lives on a timeline of peaks and troughs. They point to European stars who earned country calls after six-week purple patches. Broos shrugs off the comparison, arguing that Africa’s travel load, sultry conditions and modest squad depth make reliability non-negotiable. Until Lorch can display the “boring” week-to-week grind, the coach insists the gate stays locked, statistics be damned.
Club Hopping and Red Flags: Why Past Lives Matter to Broos
The Belgian’s file on Lorch reads like a cautionary comic strip: superhero talent, recurring vanishing act. “Pirates froze him out, Sundowns loaned him out, now we’re supposed to parachute him in?” Broos vented, listing the transitions as evidence of chronic instability. Indeed, after injuries and form dips in Orlando, the winger managed only a dozen league cameos at Chloorkop, feeding rumours of tardiness in training and half-hearted pressing.
Wydad Athletic offered more than a rescue; it delivered a rebirth. In the white-hot Casablanca derby he skinned three markers and arrowed the winner past Raja’s keeper, a goal that trended from Rabat to rural Mpumalanga. Moroccan newspapers labelled him the finest South African import since Teko Modise, yet Broos refuses to let one viral clip edit two turbulent seasons. To him, revived flair is welcome, but trust is built where coaches wake up at 5 a.m. to watch you track the opposition left-back.
The tactician claims he polled voices he trusts inside the Sundowns bunker and heard the same echo: talent yes, tactical disciple no. Whether those briefings are fair or simply convenient is open to debate, yet they cemented a perception the player now cannot shake. Broos believes dressing-room bacteria spreads faster than brilliance, so he quarantines early rather than cures late.
System Clash: Where Exactly Would Nyoso Fit in a Broos Machine?
Bafana no longer parade a loose 4-2-3-1 that allowed mercurial number tens to roam; they operate a rigid 4-3-3 that mutates into 4-1-4-1 without the ball. Wide forwards must press high, retreat fast, and still conjure quality inside the final quarter of an hour. Percy Tau, Themba Zwane and Evidence Makgopa earned seals of approval because they run back even when hamstrings burn, a price Lorch has historically been reluctant to pay.
Data emerging from Morocco hints at conversion: 2.3 tackles and 1.8 interceptions per outing, plus 10.7 kilometres covered, numbers that mirror, and occasionally eclipse, Tau’s own dashboard. Yet Broos either distrusts the metrics or fears the sample size, asking rhetorically whether those readings will survive the humidity of Luanda or the altitude of Lusaka. Until Lorch proves it under a South African shirt, the coach will lean on soldiers already battle-tested in Caf qualifiers.
There is also the chemistry question. The current front four exchange passes at tempo, each move drilled on the training pitch until muscle memory replaces improvisation. Inserting a wildcard who drifts inside for cute flick-ons could puncture that rhythm, and Broos has only six group-phase matches to secure a World Cup ticket. In such a squeeze, he prefers the devil he drills over the angel he once benched.
Human Drama: A Coach’s Principles, A Nation’s Plea, A Player Trapped in Between
Beyond spreadsheets and shape, the saga drips with human texture. Township kids still shout “Nyoso!” when they dodge gravel patches, clinging to a dream that a local boy can rise, fall, then rise again wearing the national badge. Every Lorch goal in the Maghreb lands on WhatsApp within minutes, soundtracked by pleas for clemency, turning his highlight reel into a political campaign Broos refuses to endorse.
The Belgian, holidaying in Europe, is blissfully offline to those emotive clips. He repeats his mantra that no individual supersedes the crest, a stance that earned him applause when he first axed under-performing veterans. Yet principles calcify into dogma when they dismiss evolution, and many now wonder if the 71-year-old has confused stubbornness with standards. A simple recalibration – one phone call, one training-camp invitation – could test whether repentance equals readiness, but the word “finish” sounded terminal.
Qualifiers for 2026 kick off in under six months. Tau’s medical file is thick, Zwane’s birth certificate reads 1989, and Makgopa still learns positional play like a second language. Lorch, bruised yet buzzing, offers something none of the incumbents can: the unpredictability that unlocks compact African blocks, plus a personal hunger to rewrite his narrative. Whether that combination ever gets showcased on the continental stage now depends on forces larger than football – ego, perception, and time.
For the moment, the door stays bolted. Broos will march on with his chosen lieutenants while radio hosts keep spinning replays of that derby slalom. Somewhere in Casablanca, Lorch trains at dusk, aware that every sprint, every slide tackle, every clipped cross is an audition for a coach who claims he is no longer watching. The court of public opinion remains in session; only the verdict of results will reveal who blinked first.
[{“question”: “Why has Coach Hugo Broos excluded Thembinkosi Lorch from Bafana Bafana?”, “answer”: “Coach Hugo Broos has permanently ruled out Thembinkosi Lorch from the national team due to perceived inconsistency in his performance, past disciplinary issues, and a lack of effort and adherence to the team’s tactical demands. Broos emphasizes sustained high-level performance and commitment over sporadic flashes of brilliance.”}, {“question”: “What specific issues does Broos have with Lorch’s consistency and work ethic?”, “answer”: “Broos believes Lorch is not consistent enough with his performances, stating that ‘three months of Moroccan spice cannot mask two years of bland football.’ He also looks for players who ‘sprint back in the 93rd minute as happily as he bombs forward in the third,’ implying Lorch historically lacks this defensive buy-in and consistent work rate.”}, {“question”: “How does Broos view Lorch’s recent good form and statistics at Wydad Casablanca?”, “answer”: “Despite Lorch’s impressive statistics at Wydad Casablanca (8 goals and 4 assists in 28 games, and 5 goals and 4 assists in 11 matches this current campaign), Broos dismisses these numbers, stating, ‘Numbers lie when attitude hides.’ He prefers to ‘study clips with the sound off, hunting for defensive buy-in first’ and believes a ‘quarterly surge’ is not enough, demanding consistent proof year after year.”}, {“question”: “Why does Lorch’s past club history and transitions matter to Coach Broos?”, “answer”: “Broos views Lorch’s past club transitions, such as being ‘frozen out’ by Orlando Pirates and ‘loaned out’ by Mamelodi Sundowns, as evidence of chronic instability. He mentioned hearing from ‘trusted voices’ within the Sundowns camp that Lorch possessed talent but lacked tactical discipline, reinforcing his perception that ‘dressing-room bacteria spreads faster than brilliance.'”}, {“question”: “Why is Lorch’s playing style considered a poor fit for Broos’ Bafana Bafana system?”, “answer”: “Broos’ Bafana Bafana operates a rigid 4-3-3 system that transforms into a 4-1-4-1 without the ball, requiring wide forwards to press high, retreat fast, and maintain quality. Broos believes Lorch has historically been ‘reluctant to pay’ the price of consistent defensive effort. He also fears that inserting a ‘wildcard who drifts inside for cute flick-ons could puncture’ the team’s established rhythm and chemistry, especially with crucial World Cup qualifiers ahead.”}, {“question”: “Is there any possibility of Lorch returning to the national team under Broos?”, “answer”: “Based on Broos’s definitive statements, such as ‘closed the chapter for good’ and his dismissive attitude towards Lorch’s current form and past, the possibility of Lorch returning to Bafana Bafana while Broos is coach seems extremely unlikely. Broos’s principles appear to be ‘calcified into dogma,’ and he seems unwilling to ‘recalibrate’ his decision, despite public debate and Lorch’s potential to offer ‘unpredictability that unlocks compact African blocks.'”}]
