With the Afcon 2025 spot safely secured via a top-of-the-group finish, more of the same will be expected from Bafana Bafana this year as Hugo Broos’s men turn their attention to winning a World Cup qualification for the first time in more than 20 years.
They gained automatic entry as hosts in 2010, but the last time they earned their spot at the global showpiece was back in 2002.
Bafana’s target is to be one of the nine African group winners to guarantee automatic entry into the 2026 Fifa World Cup which, for the first time in the history of the tournament, will be co-hosted by three countries — Canada, Mexico and the US.
Four best runners-up will fight it out to win a spot in a last-ditch play-off tournament against teams from other confederations; Africa may end up with 10 teams at the football fiesta, which has been expanded from 32 to 48 teams.
Resume campaign
Bafana will resume their bid for a trip to North America in March when they host Lesotho before travelling to Benin. Thereafter they’ll be away to Lesotho, followed by a home match against Nigeria in September. They will conclude their campaign with two matches in October, away to Zimbabwe and against Rwanda at home.
After four rounds of matches South Africa sit in second position in group C, tied on seven points with leaders Rwanda and third-placed Benin. The three countries have each won two matches, drawn one and lost one.
Broos will set his sights on shooting to the summit of the table against Lesotho to gain control of the group and take charge of their destiny.
Bafana are bidding to play in their fourth World Cup in which, if they make it, Broos will aim to become the first coach to lead them out of the group stages.
Frenchman Philippe Troussier was at the helm when they made their debut in France in 1998. Bafana were under the stewardship of Jomo Sono in 2002 in South Korea and Japan.
Brazilian world champion Carlos Alberto Parreira was in charge when South Africa became the first African country to stage the showpiece — and Bafana earned the ignominy of being the first host country to fail to advance to the knockout stages.
High expectations
Having punched above their weight by finishing third at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast early last year, 1996 African champions Bafana will go to Afcon 2025 in Morocco (December 21 to January 18) with even higher expectations of reaching the final, for the first time since losing to Egypt in Burkina Faso in 1998.
It would not be folly to fancy them as challengers under the stewardship of Broos, who earned champion credentials in the competition with Cameroon in 2017.
Heavily reliant
To go all the way in north Africa, Bafana will have to be clinical in front of goal and close off matches in regulation time. Their progress in the last edition was heavily reliant on the penalty-saving heroics of captain Ronwen Williams.
They displayed positive traits in a supremely successful Afcon 2025 qualifying campaign: dominating opponents and dictating the tempo with passionate play, an appetite for a glut of goals, the ability to snatch a draw and a victory from the jaws of defeat and a fighting spirit and unity. Such characteristics were not seen before Belgian boss Broos assumed the reins in 2021.
It will be incumbent on Williams, Khuliso Mudau, Rushwin Dortley, Oswin Appollis, Teboho Mokoena, Elias Mokwana and the rest of their teammates to sail from the south and pitch the South African flag in the north of Africa, and then carry the momentum to north America.
Morocco will also be the ground on which Banyana Banyana will battle to defend their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title from July 5 to 26. Desiree Ellis’s team are in group C with Ghana, Mali and Tanzania.
On the club front, Mamelodi Sundowns will become South Africa’s first club to participate in the new 32-team Fifa Club World Cup in the US from June 14 to July 13.
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