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Bafana Bafana To Face A Struggling Sudan At Home

  • September 10, 2024
  • 3 min read
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Bafana Bafana To Face A Struggling Sudan At Home

Bafana Bafana will face a struggling South Sudan side when they meet at Juba Stadium on Tuesday.

South Sudan has endured a difficult run in recent Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, losing three of their last four home matches and failing to win any of their last six matches in all competitions.

Their most recent victory came against Djibouti in the second preliminary round of the previous AFCON qualifiers in 2022.

Following that win, South Sudan reached the qualifying stages but finished at the bottom of Group G. They lost five matches and won only one of the allocated six games. That only victory came away from home when they defeated Congo.

But South Sudan is a relatively new nation in world football. They were officially admitted as a CAF member on 10 February 2012 following their independence from Sudan, at the 34th CAF Ordinary General Assembly hosted in Libreville, Gabon.  

They were then admitted as a FIFA member on 25 May 2012 at the second session of the 62nd FIFA Congress hosted in Budapest, Hungary. 

On 10 July 2012, South Sudan competed in its first full international match, a friendly against Uganda in Juba, who, interestingly, they will face in Group K in these AFCON qualifiers.  

Juba Stadium is new stadium having underwent renovations thanks to the FIFA Forward Programme and $5 million is said to have been spent.  

However, it is a synthetic pitch, a surface unfamiliar to South African players who are used to real grass in the PSL, which might disadvantage the flow of the game in the favour of the home side.

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is aware of South Sudan’s potential despite their recent struggles, with Rwanda’s upset still fresh in his mind in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

“I think we will have a tough game on Tuesday because (that’s what) South Sudan [gave] in their last three games,” Broos said at the press conference in Juba on Monday.  

“We know it’s an aggressive team and I don’t mean that negatively — they’re very dedicated. And also, the synthetic pitch is not easy. So, I expect a very difficult game.”  

In their opening AFCON qualifier, Bafana Bafana was forced to come from behind to draw 2-2 with Uganda at Orlando Stadium on Friday. Debutant Thalente Mbatha scored a vital goal for Bafana to secure the draw.

Broos emphasized the importance of focusing on each game individually, stating, “You never know that you are going to win the game if it’s against South Sudan or Algeria or whoever. You just try to win and this is what we will try to do. It’s a different game on a different pitch against a different opponent. 

“The Uganda game was difficult but normally we should win that game because there were so many chances Uganda didn’t have and they scored the second goal from a mistake by our keeper, but we had three, four, five other chances to score.  

“We will see how the game goes on Tuesday.” 

Uganda has taken the lead in Group K after defeating Congo 2-0 on Monday to move to four points, meaning Bafana Bafana cannot afford to drop more points.

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Robin-Duke Madlala

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