Bafana Bafana, the South African national soccer team, recently played their 500th international match since readmission in 1992, and there have already been many highlights.
I watched many of these matches on television and personally attended the international match against Norway on eight January 2013 at the Cape Town stadium, when Bafana Bafana went down one-zero.
Bafana Bafana's 500 matches: trophies and titles
Under Clive Barker as coach, Bafana Bafana won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996 on home soil. Thereafter the team finished as runners-up in 1998 and third place in 2000 and 2023 in that competition.
Bafana Bafana also won the Afro-Asian Nations Cup of 1997, which was first played in 1999, by beating Saudi Arabia over two matches one-zero on aggregate. The team additionally won the COSAFA Cup, the tournament for national teams from southern Africa, five times already and reached the semi-finals of the FIFA Confederations Cup once.
Victories against strong opposition
South Africa has also achieved success against much stronger opposition many times since 1992 and has recorded ten victories over European teams. This includes victories over Slovenia (one-zero) and France (two-one) during the World Cup tournaments of 2002 and 2010 respectively. Against France the team was coached by Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira, who as coach won the World Cup in 1994 with his birthplace Brazil.
There were furthermore two victories over South American opposition, one over Paraguay (three-zero) in 2008 and one over Colombia (two-one) in 2010, as well as a draw against Argentina in 1995.
One of Bafana Bafana's greatest highlights was the one-zero victory over Spain in an international match on nineteen November 2013 in Johannesburg. Spain was then the world and European champion and held first place on the world rankings, while Bafana Bafana was 61st on FIFA's rankings. This victory was achieved under Gordon Igesund as coach. Bafana Bafana's highest position on FIFA's rankings so far was 16th in August 1996.
Four times at the World Cup
Bafana Bafana has qualified four times for the FIFA Soccer World Cup tournament, once as host nation in 2010. The team has also played twice in the opening match, both times against Mexico, in 2010 and during the World Cup tournament earlier this year. This year Bafana Bafana in North America also reached the knockout phase for the first time, where the team was eliminated in the round of 32.
With so many highlights in Bafana Bafana's first 500 matches since 1992 the next 500 promise to deliver even more highlights, and Bafana can grow into an even greater force in world soccer.
André van Eck, Worcester
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
