Bafana Bafana have secured their place in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations without tasting defeat in Group K.
The Hugo Broos-led team managed to register four wins and two draws to finish ahead of the Uganda Cranes who won four games, lost one, and drew the other. The biennial competition will be held in Morocco from late 2025.
The 3-0 win over South Sudan on Tuesday completed what has been a fantastic year for the South Africa National Team.
Bafana are confident ahead of the World Cup qualifiers
South Africa will return to action in March when they play Lesotho in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier.
“If you look at 2024, it's a fantastic year. We started with the bronze medal at Afcon, we played fantastic games in Algeria, against Zimbabwe, against Congo. I wanted us to finish in beauty, to do a good game, with a nice win,” the Belgian said after Tuesday's game.
“I think now we can have a good team, in four months we will have important games but I think we're confident, there's a big chance we can qualify [For the World Cup].
“It's true [I want to end my career on a high]. I was at the World Cup as a player, I think when my career is done as a coach that should be fantastic but not only for me but also for this country and for the players. They did well in the last two years, we had very difficult periods but you can see where we are. South Africa has a very good team.”
We will disappoint players – Broos
Broos concedes it will not be easy to get his final squad for Afcon owing to the competitiveness that has been shown, but he has to make a decision that might not go down well with some.
“The more difficult it is the better, the more I like it because that means you have very good players. When you see how we selected three years ago, it was very easy. So now we have to disappoint players that maybe deserve to be with the team but we can only select 23 players,” he continued.
“But they can also know that if we have injuries or whatever, we don't have to search for a long time, we just take the list and we take the player.
“Four months, it's a pity because we were used to being together and playing games, now suddenly there'll be a silence of four months but okay, the players in the PSL will stay in shape and in four months they will be happy again to be with the national team.”
