Siyaya E America! Bafana Bafana through to 2026 FIFA World Cup

By Kopano Dibakwane

The South African male national senior soccer team, fondly known as Bafana Bafana, shot to the top of the Group C table in the qualifying stages with 18 points, and comfortably secured a spot in the 2026 FIFA World Cup after dishing out a merciless 3-0 beating to Rwanda at the Mbombela stadium on Tuesday evening of 14 October 2025.

Following a disappointing 0-0 draw against Zimbabwe last week at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in KwaZulu-Natal province, and having 3 points deducted as punishment meted out by FIFA for illegally fielding Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Teboho Mokoena against Lesotho in a previous match, Bafana Bafana was left with no choice but to ensure victory against Rwanda in order to make it through to next year’s world soccer tournament to be held in the USA, Mexico, and Canada between June and July.

**Caption: MEC Mabuza in a group photo with Bafana Bafana and SAFA management**

They also pinned their hopes on Nigeria winning against Benin. Nigeria fortunately gave Bafana the much-needed advantage by thrashing Benin 4-0.

Bafana owes their victory to three Orlando Pirates players, Thalente Mbatha, Oswin Apollis, and Evidence Makgopa, who each contributed a goal in the nail-biting game against the Rwandan team.

Mbatha opened the scoreboard with a scorching long range shot outside the box in the 5th minute, while the additional goals from Apollis and Makgopa, came in the 26th and 72nd minutes, respectively.

The South African coach, Hugo Broos, was given a rude awakening in the previous match against Zimbabwe and had to make immediate tactical changes to put his team back on track. Broos expressed confidence ahead of the match against Rwanda.

“We have come in leaps and bounds, and you know we’ve done extremely well. So, we don’t have to change much, we don’t have to have any doubts, and we still believe in the team that we’ve got. We still believe that there’s all to play for and we believe that we can make history,” said Broos.

The Bafana squad and SAFA (South African Football Association) management received a special visit from Mpumalanga MEC for DCSR (Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation), Leah Mabuza, upon their arrival in Mbombela, a few hours before the match.

The MEC shared words of encouragement and motivation which obviously worked wonders, based on the impressive performance by the squad. Mabuza issued a public statement through the DCSR social media page and encouraged Mpumalanga soccer lovers to fill up the Mbombela stadium in support of the boys. The MEC’s call was warmly received by the people of Mpumalanga who came in numbers to the stadium and their loud presence reverberated throughout South Africa.

Categories

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Related News

You may have missed