The task is straightforward - beat Lesotho and Nigeria at home, and qualification is within touching distance.
If Bafana Bafana fails to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it will go down as one of the biggest bottle jobs in South African football. The task is straightforward, beat Lesotho and Nigeria at home, and qualification is within touching distance.
Bafana well clear
With four games to play, Hugo Broos has his side sitting top of Group C on 13 points, five clear of second-placed Rwanda. The coach would have taken this scenario if it was offered to him before the qualifiers started.
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For Bafana, missing out from this position would be unforgivable. More importantly, it would rob the football-mad nation of the moment it has craved for 23 years. Mzansi football doesn’t need another nearly story, it needs Bafana on the plane to North America.
The country last qualified for the world cup in 2002 which was held in South Korea and Japan. They featured again in 2010 as hosts, but two decades of near misses and heartbreak have followed. Broos has said he will step down either before or after the World Cup, depending on if Bafana get there. But he needs to get there to seal his legacy.
No longer a laughing stock
To his credit, the Belgian has restored optimism and pride to a national side that had been drifting for years. The 1996 AFCON champions are no longer a laughing stock on the continent, and history will remember Broos fondly for guiding Bafana to a bronze medal at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire.
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He promised to take Bafana back among the world’s finest, and from this position the team cannot choke because qualification is the bare minimum. Failure to finish the job would put a stain over what has otherwise been a remarkable revival under Broos. The missing piece for this generation is clear, they have to rewrite history and put the country back on football’s biggest stage.
The scars of the last qualifying campaign still linger. In 2021, Bafana’s hopes were dashed by a controversial penalty against Ghana in the final group game, a decision that many still consider highly dubious. At that stage, excuses were understandable, the squad was young, and the project was still in its infancy.
Four years later, with experience gained and belief restored, the circumstances are very different. Bafana have re-established themselves as one of Africa’s strongest sides, but the puzzle will remain incomplete until they secure a place at the 2026 World Cup that will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
History remembers the winner
For over two decades, the nation has endured heartache, controversy and near misses. That cycle has to end. Broos and his players have a chance to break the curse by earning the right to play on the world’s grandest stage.
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History remembers the winners, not the nearly men. Over the next two months, Bafana must prove they belong among the world’s elite or risk being remembered as a team that promised so much but fell short when it mattered most.
