South Africa have lined up two friendly matches with central American nation Panama, at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Friday and at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Tuesday.

The matches form part of Hugo Broos' team preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals, where they have been drawn in Group A with Mexico, South Korea and one of Czech Republic, Republic of Ireland, Denmark or North Macedonia.

In the build-up to the game, Broos revealed that the likes of Brazil and Argentina were interested in a Bafana friendly - but the cost to play the teams would have been prohibitive, and even playing Panama was not a cheap exercise.

Mngqithi though feels that the South African Football Association should have found a stronger opponent.

"I'd be lying if I said we supported Broos enough when it comes to friendlies," Mngqithi said on iDiski Times.

"I think his preparation is too limited because this means he has one game he'll play after AFCON. I regard [two games] them as one game if they are played in one FIFA break.

"I don't think it helps him that much to try things and see players that he hadn't tried, that are doing well right now."

"To me, I feel we didn't support him as we had to," the Arrows mentor added.

"I think we could have chosen better even on the calibre of opponents. If the last game before World Cup was against big guns, what you'd see that would give hope on how you'll fare in the World Cup.

"The type of opposition we're playing is like the countries we played before the 2010 World Cup, when we faced the likes of Guatemala, teams that you have never heard of in football.

"We could have chosen even one powerhouse in Africa – the team that has qualified for the World Cup so we could see if we are close because this is the only FIFA break we have before going there."

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