Bafana Bafana embarrass themselves in Rwanda

Since the abolition of Apartheid in the Republic of South Africa in the nineties, Bafana Bafana has been competing on the African and the world stage. A full 25 years later, only the nickname Bafana-Bafana remains. The successors of the great generations led by such legends as Theophilus Khumalo, Benny McCarthy and Quinton Fortune are tarnishing their reputation time and time again. In the match of the second round of qualification for the 2026 World Cup, they were defeated away from home by Rwanda 2:0 (2:0), thereby missing a great opportunity to escape the main competitor, Nigeria to four points ahead. The Super Eagles played two embarrassing draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, so it looked like South Africa would have an easy task against the great outsiders after their opening win over Benin. But after only the 12th minute, everything was denied by Innocent Nshuti, a player who is worth 25,000 euros according to Transfermarket. He snatched the ball too easily from Enkosinati Sibisiyu and easily beat Ronwen Williams to give the home team the lead.

A complete breakdown followed in the 28th minute when a player without market value Gilbert Mugisha shook the net for 2:0. Even in the continuation of the match, the team of the Belgian coach Hugo Bross did not make a big improvement compared to the first half hour of the game, so it was easily defeated. The man who won the African Cup of Nations with Cameroon in 2017 had a complete meltdown in Kigali, and the question is how much more patience the confederation leaders will have. Games like this do not bode well ahead of the continental competition in January, where South Africa will be placed in a group with Tunisia, Mali and Namibia.

AFRICA - WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

Tuesday

Eswatini - Cape Verde 0-2 (0-1)

/Mendes 17, Monteiro 38/

Botswana - Guinea 1-0 (0-0)

/Seakanyeng 72/

Somalia - Uganda 0-1 (0-1)

/Kassim 4/

Malawi - Tunisia 0-1 (0-0)

/Msakni 88/

Lesotho - Benin 0-0

Rwanda - S.Africa 2-0 (1-0)

/Nshuti 12, Mugisha 28/

19:00: (5.40) Libya (3.60) Cameroon (1.70)

19:00: (6.25) Mauritius (3.90) Angola (1.57)

19:00: (7.25) Comores (3.70) Ghana (1.55)

19:00: (8.50) Sao Tome (4.30) Namibia (1.42)

19:00: (7.75) Togo (4.10) Senegal (1.47)

19:00: (4.30) South Sudan (3.50) Mauritania (1.87)

22:00: (7.00) Niger (3.80) Zambia (1.55)

22:00: (6.25) Tanzania (3.60) Morocco (1.63)

22:00: (5.70) Ethiopia (3.60) Burkina Faso (1.67)

***odds are subject to change