Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos and captain Ronwen Williams share their thoughts ahead of Tuesday’s must-win World Cup qualifier against Rwanda.
South Africa will need to win their final qualifier against Rwanda when the two sides meet at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
However, Bafana’s hopes of qualifying depend on whether Nigeria can beat Benin by three goals or more.
Broos says the team’s spirit is high and they have not given up on the possibility of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
“We are back mentally and that is very important. The (team’s) qualities didn’t disappear with the draw against Zimbabwe,” Broos said.
“It was mentally that we had to recover and turn the button. You can be sure that the button has been turned, and mentality, the team spirit and the belief is there again,” he said.
“This is another amazing thing about this team and after the uppercut we got on Friday, everyone can turn the button and focus on the next job in the shortest period of time.
“Therefore, I believe again and I’m confident that tomorrow we will fight for it again, and we will try to win the game, and we will have a big chance to win.”
Williams shared the same sentiment as his coach and insisted they will enter their final qualifier with a positive mindset.
“Obviously we were a bit down, we were devastated but as the coach told us, we had 24 hours to clean that feeling out of our system.
“If you could have seen our training yesterday you would have seen that the boys mean business.
“I mean, the coach emphasised this, why do we need to start doubting ourselves now? Yes, it was a setback, but we shouldn’t forget what we’ve done over the last few years.
“We have come in leaps and bounds, and you know we’ve done extremely well. So, we don’t have to change much, we don’t have to have any doubts, and we still believe in the team that we’ve got.
“We still believe that there’s all to play for and we believe that we can make history tomorrow. You can feel and you can sense that inside the team and the players, the mindset is good.
“But like I said, of course we would have loved things to be different, but they are not. So, the boys know that we have to dig deep, we have to go again and just leave our all on the field tomorrow night.”
