Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has challenged his team to use their current momentum and seal a World Cup ticket to the 2026 tournament.
South Africa qualified for the 2025 Africa Cup with an unbeaten record and also topped their group for back-to-back appearances at the continental tournament in their history and Broos feels now is the time to make it to the World Cup which has eluded them since they hosted it in 2010.
“We were competitive in January, and I think when you see the team played today, I think we still progressed so little by little,” Broos said after Tuesday’s 3-0 win over South Sudan.
Bafana quality gives Broos confidence
“But that doesn’t mean that we have to think that ‘Okay we are we have to be now, no! But little by little, we [are] becoming a good team and that will give us the confidence we need for the next thing we have to do, which is qualifying for the World Cup.
“If you ask me now, are you going to qualify for the World Cup, I can say yes because it’s a football game and you never know what is gonna happen in the football game but I’m confident that we can do it.
“I think if South Africa can qualify for the World Cup it is now because we have quality because we have a good team so we can do it, but we still have to do it. If we show the same mentality, the same quality, the same team spirit there’s a big chance that we qualify for the World Cup.”
Will South Africa top their qualifying group?
South Africa are in a tight World Cup qualifying group for the 2026 tournament set to be staged in the United States, Canada and Mexico with three teams on seven points after four matches.
Rwanda, South Africa and Benin are all on seven points, Lesotho on five, while Nigeria have three ahead of the next round of matches set to be played in March 2025.
Only one team from the group will seal an automatic World Cup ticket with the second placed side set to get into a gruelling playoff.
