When the Bafana Bafana squad was announced late last month, I had written them off to impress in the Africa Cup of Nations because we don’t have a player that is considered to be a star attraction like in the past with Benni McCarthy, Shaun Bartlett, and the late Phil Masinga, amongst others.
But just like coach Hugo Broos once said, “Only fools don’t change their minds”, when he recalled kingpin Themba Zwane and I have changed mine as well.
A few things can work in Bafana’s favour to impress in Ivory Coast – they have cohesion: coach Broos selected 10 Mamelodi Sundowns players; they have a coach with know–how; and Percy Tau has been a star performer at Al Ahly.
Zwane has also been impressive, too, both with Sundowns and Bafana, as he was against Ivory Coast by scoring in a 1-1 draw in the friendly match in October that was played in the West African country.
That game will long be remembered for how Khuliso Mudau shut down former Manchester United and Crystal Palace winger Wilfred Zaha, with the Sundowns full-back and PSL Defender of the Season winning many duels.
Zaha, who now plays for Galatasaray in Turkey, likes to take players on and even changed sides but still did not find joy.
Maybe this is part of the reason why Elephants coach Jean-Louis Gasset did not include him in the final squad on home soil?
South Africa, of course – looking at Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and Senegal – are certainly down in the pecking order in being favourites.
That is because Bafana doesn’t have players who are playing at the highest level abroad, unlike those nations.
But something might work in Mzansi’s favour – coach Broos selected 10 players of Sundowns and that might have worked in the team settling in quickly and finding cohesion.
He selected Ronwen Williams, Terrence Mashego, Aubrey Modiba, Zwane, Thapelo Maseko, Mothobi Mvala, Teboho Mokoena. Grant Kekana, Mudau, and Thapelo Morena – and all of them know what it takes to win as they won the African Football League against some of the best clubs on the African continent.
The old head of Hugo Broos
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Bafana Bafana has a coach who has the know-how to win the Africa Cup of Nations, having done so in in his only attempt with Cameroon in 2017.
He eliminated key players on their way to claim the tournament such as Stephanie Mbia, who was the captain at that time, along with Alex Song. Joel Matip decided to retire.
But Broos built a new team – trusting in players such as Fabrice Ondoa, Sebastien Siani, Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui, Arnaud Gilles Djoum, captain Christian Bassogog, and Vincent Aboubakar who was leading the line.
As a cliche may sound, the latter indeed led the line well, flicking the ball over before powering a winner in the 88th minute as Cameroon won the fifth Africa Cup of Nations against Mohamed Salah’s Egypt.
It was an unknown team in Gabon, beside Aboubakar, who was already shining brightly at FC Porto in Portugal.
Having seen this template work, Broos, in his first press conference in May 2021 when he was announced as the Bafana coach, spelled it clear that he was here to rebuild a team and felt it was an aging side, under his predecessor coach Molefi Ntseki, that failed to qualify for the AFCON in 2022.
He said, with this new team, if Bafana doesn’t qualify for this AFCON finals, better “kill me”. He has lived up to that and Bafana qualified with a game to spare when they beat Liberia away in March last year.
It was indeed a new team compared to that side that failed to qualify – bar Williams, Tau, and Zwane.
Initially, Broos’ selection was questionable looking at the players he was calling. In his first game in charge against Uganda at Orlando Stadium, though he was not there as he was away to vaccinate at home in Belgium, it reads – Williams, Innocent Maela, Rushine de Reuck, Nkosinathi Sibisi, Sibusiso Mabiliso, Denwin Farmer, Ethan Brooks, Lebohang Maboe, Craig Martin, Siphelele Mkhulise and Bongokuhle Hlongwane. Your reaction to this is as good as mine.
Only Evidence Makgopa, who scored twice on that day off the bench, Modiba (on the bench) and Williams are in this AFCON finals squad. It has been a long road for the Belgium coach to find himself in this position, but to a large extent, it was coupled with him being stubborn.
Percy Tau factor
Another hope for Bafana that I think they might do well is Percy Tau. He has been doing well with Al Ahly – winning the Champions League last season. During the CAF Awards last year, he was named CAF Footballer of the Year Based in Africa, becoming the first South African to win such a prestigious gong.
He scored when Ahly thumped Urawa Reds 4-2, as they claimed another bronze in the FIFA Club World Cup.
Tau is heading to the tournament having scored four goals in five matches in the league for the Egyptian giants.
Bafana can win Group E which includes Mali, Namibia, and Tunisia
Bafana’s group is not hard, at all. First and foremost, to put this out of the way, Namibia has never won an AFCON match before, and despite having Peter Shalulile as their man carrying the nation’s hopes, where is the supply going to come from like he does get on the consistency basis at Sundowns?
Also, when Bafana reached the quarter-finals in the 2019 edition, they beat them in the group, which was enough to go through as one of the four best third-placed teams to reach the knockout stages.
Mali is not a powerhouse nation either, though they have some good players. They finished as runners-up in 1972 and after that, it has been fourth place finishes four times and third twice, with the latter in South Africa in 2013.
However, a stat that will not be appetizing to South African fans is that Bafana has never defeated Mali in two previous Africa Cup of Nations meetings.
Mali beat Bafana 2-0 when they hosted the event in 2002 in the quarter-finals and again beat Bafana in the 2013 edition at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on the same stage on penalties.
Despite Bafana having failed to beat Mali when it matters most, the last time they met they had good memories, winning 2-1 in the annual Nelson Mandela Challenge at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in 2019 – it was the first game for coach Molefi Ntseki, who had replaced Stuart Baxter after he had left following the defeat to Nigeria in the quarter-finals in Egypt.
When everyone talks about Tunisia, South African faces light up.
Bafana beat the Carthage Eagles in 1996 to win the AFCON on home soil and 4-3 on penalties to win the bronze medal in the 2000 edition that was co-hosted in Ghana and Nigeria.
By Robin-Duke Madlala (@duke_robin).