As South Africa get ready to start their qualifying campaign for the next African Cup of Nations, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has stressed the importance of starting strong.
South Africa open their Group K campaign with a home game against Uganda on Friday and follow it up with an away trip to South Sudan on Tuesday.
Speaking to the media ahead of the opening game of the campaign Broos said: “We are confident and we believe in ourselves that we will start these Afcon qualifiers very well.
“It’s very important, when you play qualifiers, to have a good start; when you have a good start you put pressure on your opponents and when you don’t, it’s just the opposite and we have to avoid that.
“They are difficult teams to play against. They are teams who have much power, much height and they play with the heart.
“There are some good individuals in both teams, so that means we must be at our level best.
“We have the quality to win both games and we are confident but that doesn’t mean we have to underestimate our opponents.
“With the quality we have and the status we have now, being ranked 10th in Africa, we want to try to stay there. We can stay there by getting good results in the next three months in Afcon qualifiers.
“I don’t think we can be happy if we don’t get six points from these two qualifiers,” he said.
As stated by Broos, South Africa are currently ranked tenth in Africa – this week’s opponents Uganda are ranked 21st on the continent while fledgling nation South Sudan are 47th. The other team in the group is The Republic of Congo who are ranked 27th.
South Africa versus Uganda kicks off on Friday night at 18:00.
Bafana Bafana goalkeeper coach Grant Johnson with the three keepers in camp ahead of the 2025 AFCON qualifier against Uganda at Orlando Stadium on Friday, 6 September 2024. Veli Mothwa, Sipho Chaine and Ricardo Goss will be fighting it out for the No1 jersey tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/Syu1WIC04V
— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) September 5, 2024
