South Africa international Ethan Brooks was emotional when he shared his thoughts on Bafana Bafana's controversial match against Ghana.
Senegalese match referee Maguette N'Diaye's display in the crucial 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier which ended in a 1-0 win in favour of Ghana on Sunday has come under heavy scrutiny.
Former top PSL match referee Ace Ncobo stated that the official got 89.3% of his decisions wrong to Bafana Bafana's detriment in the first half of the match which saw South Africa fail to advance to the play-off round of the qualifiers.
The South African Football Association has since made a protest to Fifa and Brooks was brought down to tears when he reflected on the encounter which was played at Cape Coast Sports Stadium in Ghana.
“Like Ronwen [Williams], Rushine [de Reuck] and Tebogo [Mokoena] said, it’s a very good squad that we have,” Brooks told the media.
“We were really confident throughout the whole qualifiers, and I would just like to say that being one of the youngest in the group, I am glad that I was able to be part of this group and being able to look up to these guys.”
N'Diaye awarded Ghana a dubious penalty after Daniel Amartey went down in the Bafana box following minimal contact from Rushine de Reuck. Andre Ayew converted from the spot-kick to score the only goal of the game.
“In terms of the game, we went out there with confidence and our coach mentioned that we should do that,” the 20-year-old starlet continued.
“With me being one of the youngest and one of the smallest I went out there and made sure that I did give my best and compete in every duel.
Brooks, who was substituted with 20 minutes left, felt that the 35-year-old match official was biased against Bafana on the night.
“So I did feel though with every duel the referee turned his head the other way and for me, it’s just not nice to see that,” the Johannesburg-born midfielder explained.
“Giving my all doing all of that but like I said this is a good bunch of players that you know and it hurts to go out like this.
“But we will learn and grow from this.”
