Mkhalele upbeat over Bafana chances in Cosafa Cup

Bafana Bafana will look to go one better than their third-place finish in 2023 when they start their 2024 Cosafa Cup soccer campaign with a match against Mozambique at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Wednesday (6pm).

The side will be led by Bafana assistant coach Helman Mkhalele, who assumes the hot seat in the absence of head coach Hugo Broos.

Bafana will aim for another unbeaten run in the group stages, where they also have matches against Botswana (June 29) and Eswatini (July 2) in the tournament’s 23rd edition.

South Africa have a young developmental team packed with uncapped players as they look to expand their player pool with this year's Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in mind. 

They have traditionally used the Cosafa Cup to blood young stars — players such as Stellenbosch FC striker Iqraam Rayners got a run in 2023, going on to become the starting No 9 in the recent World Cup qualifiers. 

“For us to be able to compete and achieve results, it is important to have more players to select from, but more importantly, players with the required competence to perform at the highest level of football,” Mkhalele said.

“As we observed during the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast earlier this year, football on the continent has improved drastically. 

“So for us to sustain the performance of Bafana Bafana and improve, it is important that we have players who can perform at that level without doubt.”

In last year’s edition, Bafana drew against Namibia (1-1) before 2-1 wins over Botswana and Eswatini in the group stages.

They went down 2-1 against eventual champions Zambia before completing a 5-3 penalty shoot-out victory over Malawi to secure the bronze medal.

During their first appearance in the competition in 1998, they were unceremoniously dumped out in the first round, only two years after winning the African Cup of Nations at their first attempt.

Since that first showing, South Africa have claimed the title on five occasions, in 2002, 2007, 2008, 2016 and 2021.

Those statistics are bettered only by Zambia and Zimbabwe, who own seven and six titles respectively. 

Bafana have never lost a final but  they have fallen at the semifinal stage on five occasions, while they have reached at least the quarterfinal stages on eight occasions.

The 12-team tournament will feature three groups of four teams, with the group winners and one best-placed second team advancing to the semifinals.

Matches will be played at the NMB and Wolfson Stadiums from Wednesday until July 2 before returning to the 2010 Fifa World Cup venue for the semifinals, third-place playoff and the final between July 5 and 7.

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