‘I don’t think we realise what we have just done,’ said the Bafana captain.
Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams believes it will take a while for the achievement of qualifying for the 2026 Fifa World Cup finals to sink in.
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South Africa’s 3-0 win over Rwanda at the Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday evening, combined with Nigeria’s 4-0 win over Benin, meant that Bafana finished top of Group C and booked their ticket to the USA, Canada and Mexico next year.
Bafana beat the odds
Hugo Broos is the first coach to successfully lead Bafana through qualification for a World Cup finals since Carlos Queiroz got the count ryto the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
Bafana also won the group despite being deducted three points for fielding an ineligible player – Teboho Mokoena – in a March qualifier against Lesotho.
That and a draw with Zimbabwe on Friday left Bafana two points behind Benin heading into the final round of qualifying. But the Super Eagles trounced Benin in Uyo, meaning goals from Thalente Mbatha, Oswin Appollis and Evidence Makgopa were enough to take Bafana through.
“It is amazing, I am lost for words,” Williams told SABC TV after the match.
“I don’t think we realise what we have just done. This is history. I am so proud of leading this team. What we have done here is amazing and I think as time goes by it will probably sink in. But I am so proud of the this team, the players and especially the coach and the technical team.
Williams – ‘We have stuck together’
“There have been good and bad moments but in those bad moments we have stuck together. That is what we asked for in the last few days. In the good moments it is easy to be a team, but in the bad moments, that is when you have to draw strength from one another.”
Bafana join Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cape Verde and Algeria as the nine teams that have automatically qualified for the World Cup, an expanded 48-team tournament that will take place between June 11 and July 19.
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The next important World Cup date for Willams and his side is December 5, when Bafana will learn who they will face at the finals, with the draw set to take place at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
After that, Bafana will head off to Morocco for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, which runs from December 21 to January 18. Bafana have been drawn in Group B, alongside Egypt, Angola and Zimbabwe.
