Bafana hold dominant record against Tuesday night's opponents Angola
South Africa will go into Tuesday night’s friendly with Angola holding a dominant record against their opponents that has seen them taste defeat in just one of their previous 12 meetings.
That loss came when the national side fielded a virtual ‘C’ team in the African Nations Championship qualifiers and was also the last time they lost against any opposition‚ some 16 matches and 18 months ago in October 2015.
When the teams met a month later in the World Cup qualifiers‚ a full-strength Bafana showed their muscle with a 3-1 victory in Luanda and a 1-0 win at home for a comfortably aggregate success.
Of the previous 12 meetings‚ five of them came in 2016 alone as aside from the CHAN and World Cup qualifiers‚ the sides also met in a friendly international in Cape Town in June that South Africa won 2-1.
Thamsanqa Gabuza and Ayanda Patosi were on target in that come-from-behind victory.
The first CHAN clash played at home was lost 2-0 in a fixture in which assistant coach Thabo Senong led the side from the dug-out‚ with the full senior side still making their way back from a friendly tour of Costa Rica and Honduras.
South Africa won the return in Luanda 2-1‚ but it was not enough to advance on aggregate.
A Fabrício own goal and a strike from young Fagrie Lakay won the day for the under-strength Bafana.
They followed that up with the 3-1 World Cup qualifier win as Tokelo Rantie‚ Gabuza and Andile Jali (penalty) found the back of the net‚ before the latter was sent-off for a second yellow card.
The hapless Angolans lost again in the return fixture when Diniz this time put the ball into his own net.
A feature of past meetings between the sides from further back is that they have largely been in competitive matches‚ with four of them at the African Nations Cup finals themselves.
This includes at the tournament hosted by South Africa in 2013 when Bafana earned a 2-0 victory in their second pool match in Durban thanks to strikes from Siyabonga Sangweni and Lehlohonolo Majoro.
They also met in the Nations Cup finals in Ghana in 2008 when an Elrio van Heerden screamer saw them claim a 1-1 draw in the pool stages‚ and played to a 0-0 draw at the 1998 finals in Burkina Faso.
But perhaps most famously Mark Williams scored the winner in the first match-up between the two at the 1996 Nations Cup.
He would net twice more in the final against Tunisia as South Africa lifted the trophy that year.
Shaun Bartlett scored the winner in a 1-0 success at Soccer City in qualifying for the 2000 Nations Cup finals‚ while the return fixture in that pool finished 2-2 in Luanda.
Helman Mkhalele and Daniel Mudau put Bafana 2-0 up‚ but they were pegged back in the final 20 minutes.
The only other friendly match played between the two countries finished 1-0 to Bafana at the Mmabatho Stadium in a 2002 Nations Cup warm-up with Benni McCarthy on the scoresheet.
- TMG Digital