Bafana Bafana confident of achieving 'something special' at Afcon

Bafana Bafana will kick off their Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) on Tuesday not in the list of teams favoured to win the title, but that hasn’t deterred their spirits in pursuit of achieving “something special”.  

South Africa wrapped up their preparations and will have their moment of truth when they face Mali at Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium in Korhogo, Ivory Coast (10pm, SA time).

At home, the Hugo Broos-coached Bafana have also not enjoyed overwhelming support from South Africans as they don’t believe their national team is capable of bringing the title home.  

It’s because Bafana have disappointed for a long time, having failed to win the title since 1996.  

Instead, the national team has regressed since then, with their best performance in the Afcon being runners-up in 1998 and taking bronze in 2000. Since then, South Africa finished in the quarterfinals three times, failed to make it out of the group four times and missed four Afcon finals.  

Their previous appearance was in 2019 when they finished in the last eight under coach Stuart Baxter in Egypt.  

But Bafana star player Percy Tau, one of three players present in Egypt, said everything has gone according to plan in their preparation and they are confident of having a good tournament in the west African country.  

“We are looking forward to the game. The pitch is great, we saw it. We are playing against a difficult side,” Tau said on Monday.

“Our group is difficult because we are playing Namibia and Tunisia also. We are looking forward to those matches. We believe in ourselves — we are not overconfident, we are grounded. But that doesn’t take away that we believe we can do something special.

“We want to do something special and that’s the bottom line.”  

Broos, who won the tournament with Cameroon who were less fancied in 2017, said to do well in Afcon you need to make a strong start.  

“Everybody is happy that we are one day before the game. You know there’s always the preparation, but you are looking forward to playing,” he said.  

“We are aware we have a tough opponent tomorrow [Tuesday] with Mali. On the other hand, we believe in our chances and I hope we can achieve our best level so we can win the game.  

“It’s important for a tournament like this to start with a victory.”