It’s been a long time since Bafana Bafana won anything major, will 2015 be their year?

Some might disagree saying that our national soccer team did achieve something since 1996 having participated in three World Cups (1998 in France, 2002 in South Korea/Japan and 2010 on home soil) but failed to reach the knock-out stage in all three.

They then competed in two Fifa Confederations Cup tournaments in Saudi Arabia in 1997 and on home soil in 2009 finishing 4th on both occasions.

As far as their Afcon campaign goes Bafana won the trophy on home soil in 1996, finished 2nd two years later in Burkina Faso, 3rd in Nigeria/Ghana in 2000, the quarter final in Mali in 2002 failing to reach the knock-out stage in 2004, 2006 and 2008. They last featured in an Afcon tournament in 2013 when it was hosted on home soil reaching the quarter final, eventually beaten by Mali in a dramatic penalty shoot-out.

This year’s tournament will be held in Equatorial Guinea commencing on 17 January.

Bafana, 52nd on the current FIFA World rankings is in Group C along with Ghana (37th), Algeria (18th) and Senegal (35th).