South Africa were in a position to glide through the last two World Cup qualifiers, and comfortably secure a long-awaited slot at next year’s finals, but an act of extraordinary folly now means a nervy conclusion to the campaign.
The docking of three points from South Africa’s tally in African qualifying Group C because they used a player who should have been suspended when they beat Lesotho in March means they must effectively win their last two fixtures over the next few days.
Bafana Bafana have gone from having a handy three-point advantage at the top of the standings to sitting behind nearest rivals Benin on goal difference and only three points above the dangerous Nigeria.
But despite shooting themselves in the foot, South Africa should still qualify for next June’s tournament in North America if they beat Zimbabwe on Friday (October 10) and then Rwanda on Tuesday, October 14, as the qualifying campaign comes to a close.
If they do so, Benin would be the only side who could beat them, but they would also have to win their last two games, away matches in Rwanda and Nigeria, and that is highly unlikely given their limited resources.
South Africa are playing their last two matches at home, the first courtesy of the strict criterion that is now set on stadiums hosting these kinds of games.
Zimbabwe does not have a suitable venue and their team will be forced to host the match against Bafana Bafana outside their own country. They could have chosen anywhere on the continent but for the past two years have played their home games in South Africa because of cost constraints. This time they have picked Durban.
Zimbabwe have not won any of their eight qualifying games for the 2026 World Cup and sit bottom of the standings, already out of contention, but they’ve made it clear they will be doing South Africa no favours on the field.
In Zimbabwe’s squad there’s many players with current or past South African club connections, so bragging rights will be top of their agenda.
But it is a game Bafana Bafana should win, as is the case with the final group fixture against Rwanda at the Mbombela Stadium. Rwanda are the only team they have lost to in this campaign, a shock setback albeit in treacherous away conditions when the qualifying campaign kicked off in late 2023. However, that should not happen in
Mbombela.
The mistake of having fielded Teboho Mokoena, when he should have sat out the game after two yellow cards in previous qualifiers, will likely be quickly forgotten should Bafana Bafana triumph, but if the loss of three points costs the country a World Cup place, then accountability will be demanded.
Who is to blame? The South African Football Association president, or the CEO? The team manager, or the coach? The player himself?
Culpability should be spread among all of them. Danny Jordaan’s leadership of the organisation is as far removed as possible from his heroics in bringing the 2010 World Cup to South Africa. Instead of a formidable go-getter, he now clings to power amid a series of scandals in an organisation top-heavy with office bearers and committee members, whose numbers ensure he stays in power as long as he keeps providing them with perks.
You would have expected coach Hugo Broos to have kept a tally of the cautions accumulated by his players in the World Cup campaign. After all, coaches these days are cognisant of the disciplinary sanctions accumulated by their players because it often determines whether they field them in matches or save them in case they pick up a suspension ahead of a more important assignment. It is a key part of any coach’s planning.
The 73-year-old Broos has made no secret of the fact that this is his last job and the World Cup his final swansong. He played for Belgium when they reached the 1986 semifinal in Mexico.
But he has also made it clear that he is tired and often thinks of quitting.
“I don’t lead training sessions anymore. I just stand by and occasionally stop the game to give instructions,” he told Belgium’s Nieuwsblad in an interview in May.
“My assistant also draws up the schedule and does the analysis. I really don’t feel like sitting in front of a paper and choosing exercises anymore.
“I’m solely focused on football now, because everything else is getting too much for me. Even being alone ... There are days when I feel like flying to Belgium because I miss my family. But anyway, I know what I’m doing it for: the World Cup.”
It is impossible to argue against results, and Broos has put South Africa on the brink of a first World Cup appearance since 2010. Plus, he got the side to the semifinals of the last Africa Cup of Nations finals in Ivory Coast in early 2024.
But how much of it has to do with coaching excellence or with good fortune is up for debate. It was only after Broos abandoned his policy of picking only younger players and began to use the successful Mamelodi Sundowns players as the backbone of the team that the results turned his way.
Bafana Bafana last competed at the World Cup in 2010 but did not need to qualify for that because they were hosts. In fact, the last time South Africa successfully qualified for the finals through the preliminary process was in 2002.
It should have been a tad easier now as the numbers at the 2026 finals in Canada, Mexico and the US are up to 48 teams, from 32, with nine guaranteed African places, four more than previously.
Reaching the finals would come as a major fillip for all aspects of the South African soccer industry, which has had little of the corporate attention lavished on it in the heady excitement that preceded hosting the 2010 tournament.
To lose out, however, because no-one bothered to keep a tally of yellow cards would go down as one of the most incredible instances that South African sport snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
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