Bafana Bafana’s triumph over Liberia sealed their qualification into the 2023 AFCON finals in Ivory Coast. But that is only half the job done with much expected of them come January 2024. Mlu Mdletshe discusses.
It was a case of make-or-break for Bafana Bafana when they travelled to Monrovia to face the Lone Stars of Liberia in a crunch Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Qualifier on Tuesday afternoon.
The men’s senior national team came into this take-all encounter with their backs against the wall after surrendering a two-goal lead in last Friday’s home leg at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
All eyes turned to under-fire head coach Hugo Broos who had a lot to answer for, and rang the changes on the day for his team to respond well by defeating Liberia 2-1 to secure qualification to the 2023 AFCON finals in Ivory Coast.
Bafana Bafana and the West African minnows must still face the superior Moroccans later this year here at home and North Africa respectively to complete the qualifying programme, but Broos’ team will remain ahead of the Liberians in the final group standings either on points or a better head-to-head record as a result of Tuesday’s crucial win.
But as I congratulate Broos and Bafana for what will be an 11th appearance at AFCON, I have to remind them that the job is not done yet as now comes the preparations for this massive continental showpiece and for South Africa, its time to prepare to go toe-to-toe with some of Africa’s best teams.
Bafana Bafana qualify for AFCON 2023 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦#AFCON #TotalEnergiesAFCON #AFCON2023Q #BafanaBafana #PTFWShakes #PTFWSBetway pic.twitter.com/7eoXZr9HTm
— Shakes Rampedi (@ShakesRampedi) March 28, 2023
And by ‘Africa’s best’, I am talking about every nation that will be present at the tournament next year, as these qualifiers have shown that the so-called ‘minnows’ are progressively closing the gap between themselves and the giants.
Take Namibia for example, and their historic triumph over five-time Africa champions, Cameroon to secure their AFCON qualification. The Black Stars of Ghana were also held to a 1-1 draw by Angola in Talatona, proving just how vital preparation (for the future) is in football.
Now, preparation for a tournament can entail a lot, and Bafana Bafana need to go back to the basics of preparing – that is scouting, monitoring and gelling players together to form a solid squad that will not only represent the nation well, but also serve as the foundation for a fearless national team for years to come.
Preparing would also mean that SAFA, the PSL and the Sports Ministry should work hand-in-hand than ever before in ensuring that the country’s football development structures are revived and are actively on standby to feed players into the national set-up.
Zizi Kodwa, the newly-appointed Minister of Sports told journalists at last weekend’s SA Sports Awards that he would be meeting with president Danny Jordaan on Thursday to discuss a variety of issues related to the state of football in the country.
“I am still meeting with SAFA and many other stakeholders next week. As you know that he (Danny Jordaan) has just returned from Kigali (FIFA Conference), but I will be raising a number of issues about the development of sport,” he said.
Mandates and outcomes of this meeting will be even more anticipated by South Africans, following Bafana’s qualification, but more importantly – following the U/23 national team’s failure to secure qualification for the Africa U23 Cup of Nations in Morocco this year.
For far too long, I’ve felt the national team has been doing things the hard way – often neglecting preparations and relying on other nations and results in order to qualify for tournaments. And how about the fact that we actually last qualified for a World Cup tournament in 2002?
Victory loves preparation!
