The pressure may not be on Bafana Bafana now, but captain Ronwen Williams has insisted that the goal is to get the job done and secure an early qualification to the World Cup next year.
Bafana host the Super Eagles in their much-anticipated Group C Fifa World Cup qualifier humdinger at the Free State Stadium, in Bloemfontein, on Tuesday night. The game will get underway at 6pm.
So far, Morocco and Tunisia are the only two African teams that have booked their place in the World Cup. And South Africa is edging closer to the dream.
Nigeria behind with 10 points
Coach Hugo Broos’ men go into the blockbuster six points ahead of their opponents with three games remaining. Bafana are on top with 16 points, while Nigeria languishes in position three with 10 points.
“The most important thing is to get the job done. We don’t want any favours from anyone because we want to do things our way,” Williams said during a press conference.
“We learned the hard way a few years ago, where our destiny was not in our hands. And things ended up not going our way, so we learned and grew as a team.
“There are still nine points to play for. If it does not happen against Nigeria, we will wait for the next game [against Zimbabwe on 6 October]. So we will not put too much pressure on ourselves to get it done now. But it will mean so much to get it over and done with as early as possible.
“So, we will treat this game as another game, play like we have been playing from the start. We have played Nigeria twice in the last two years and have the experience. We haven’t lost to them in open play. And we went away to them and got a result, so there’s nothing to fear about Nigeria.”
Going in with optimism
Williams said the team will go into the colossal encounter with a lot of optimism that Bafana can indeed get the job done over their rivals and get that much-needed win to not only qualify but also get that first win over Nigeria in the qualifiers.
“Nigeria has a positive over us; we haven’t beaten them in a long time. Yes, we have had positive results… going away to Nigeria last year, it was so difficult. But to come out there with a positive result [drew 1-1] and play the way that we did, showed that we are growing as a team.
“We are getting closer and closer to beating them. We saw it at Afcon, and when we played them away in Nigeria. So hopefully this time around we can go a step further and change the narrative.
“If you look at our head-to-head record, they have got the bragging rights. But hopefully tomorrow [on Tuesday] we can show there’s a new leaf for Bafana, and the Amapiano Boys can be happy,” Williams added, with a smirk on his face and coach Hugo Broos bursting into laughter next to him.
