Even though Bafana Bafana qualified for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) without kicking a ball on Thursday afternoon, they still went for the jugular against Uganda, whom they nailed 2-0 in Kampala on Friday afternoon.
The South Africans are now in full control of Group K, where they are leading the charts with 11 points after five rounds of matches. They will finish the qualifiers against South Sudan in Cape Town on Tuesday night. Bafana have been very impressive under coach Hugo Broos and they booked their ticket to next year’s Afcon with two matches to go. The Afcon will be held in Morocco in December.
Broos did not take Friday’s match for granted and he fielded his strongest team yet, even though they were guaranteed a place in the tournament. He went for a win and had the likes of Ronwen Williams, Khuliso Mudau, Teboho Mokoena, Aubrey Modiba, Mothobi Mvala and Rushwin Dortley in his starting line-up, to show intent.
The Ugandans started on a high and in search of an early goal. However, they found the South Africans’ defence equal to the task. Led by Dortley and Mvala, Bafana kept their opponents on a tight leash and created numerous scoring opportunities for themselves, which they could not convert into goals.
But it all changed in the second half when substitutes Thapelo Morena and Patrick “Tito” Maswanganyi were introduced. The speedy Morena capitalized on some hesitant defending from the visitors and drilled the ball into the net from close range, beating Uganda and Golden Arrows goalkeeper Ismael Watenga to make it 1-0.
The Cranes did not despair, and they fought hard to get an equalizer. But Maswanganyi broke their hearts with a well-taken winning goal towards the end of the match. Iqraam Rayners unleashed a pin-point pass from the right, and Maswanganyi, the Orlando Pirates crowd favourite, skillfully trapped the ball on the turn and scored with a beauty. The goal silenced the crowd, who started leaving the ground, having accepted a 2-0 defeat from Broos’ young guns.
