To be away from players until March next year will see Bafana Bafana potentially lose the flow and momentum, coach Hugo Broos has admitted.  

Bafana Bafana’s next match is in March next year against Lesotho and Benin when the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers resume. 

Broos enjoyed the company of his players for over 10 days after they sumptuously gave him a good performance by collecting six points in two 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.  

They beat Uganda 2-0 away on Friday, displaying a mature performance despite appearing to be not in control of the game, and also beating South Sudan 3-0 at DHL Stadium on Tuesday.  

They had qualified for the 2025 AFCON finals before playing these two matches. As they won both matches, they finished top of the AFCON qualifiers for the first time since the 2015 edition, and also the first they finished the AFCON qualifiers without losing for the first time since 2019 edition qualifiers.   

“That is a problem,” said Broos when asked what is he going to do now until March next year without his players. 

“What can you do? You can’t organise games or camps because I understand there are PSL games, CAF Champions League games and whatever and you can’t suddenly organise the camp and ask the clubs to release the players. 

“But it is what it is.”  

Despite the challenges, Broos remains confident in his squad’s ability to maintain their form.

“But I’m more confident other than two years ago that I won’t see the players for two months, four months,” said Broos. 

“I think everybody knows his job; everyone knows how we play – this is a fantastic group. Okay, we will not see each other for four months, but I don’t think that will have an influence in March. 

“You will never hear me saying in March that the result is not good and that is because I didn’t see the players in four months, that goes to everyone – our opponents as well. 

“But it’s pity because we were in a flow from the beginning of the year, they were many games. Okay, we take it like it is. But I’m not afraid that in March they will be some problems.”  

Excluding COSAFA Cup matches, Bafana Bafana played 18 matches in all competitions. They won nine, drew seven and lost two matches. Those losses came against Mali in the AFCON 2023 group stages and against Nigeria in the semi final.  

Picture courtesy of KMSnapsGraphics in Cape Town