Since their first opening campaign for the 29 edition of the Afcon tourney against no-hopers Cape Verde last week, Bafana players’ should now raise their heads high and pull up those ‘stinking’ socks!
Today’s match has been punted ‘now or never’ and coach Gordon Igesund knows the terms and conditions of his contract what it entails in black and white.
From hypocrites to sangomas to anyone who matters, we’re all punting for a miracle today, nomakanjani…
The omens are good for a victory, too.
Bafana have never lost to the visitors in any of their previous six clashes.
They recorded a 1-0 victory over Angola in their second group game on the way to lifting the trophy on home soil in 1996.
Gordon Igesund would be ecstatic with a similar result today, though he will also know that matches between these two sides tend to be tight.
Bafana have won three of the previous six meetings in all, with the other three drawn – but they have never won by more than a single-goal margin.
Mark Williams scored the winner in the first match-up at the 1996 Afcon finals. The teams met again at the 1998 Afcon tournament in Burkina Faso, but this time played to a 0-0 draw.
Shaun Bartlett scored the winner in a 1-0 success at Soccer City in qualifying for the 2000 Afcon finals, while the return fixture in that pool finished 2-2 in Luanda.
Helman Mkhalele and Daniel “Mambush” Mudau put Bafana 2-0 up, but they were pegged back in the final 20 minutes.
The only friendly match played between the two countries finished 1-0 to Bafana at the Mmabatho Stadium in a 2002 Afcon warm-up, with Benni McCarthy on the score-sheet there.
And they met again in the Afcon finals in Ghana in 2008 when an Elrio van Heerden screamer saw them claim a 1-1 draw.
Tsepo Masilela, Siphiwe “Shabba” Tshabalala and Lerato “All You Need Is Love” Chabangu are the only survivors from the team that played that day.
