Bafana Bafana won't drop the ball against South Sudan

Bafana Bafana may have already qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Morocco next year, but coach Hugo Broos says they are still motivated to finish top of Group K.

Bafana — who are currently top of the group with 11 points from five games — will host South Sudan at Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday evening (6pm) in their final group match.

Should they beat South Sudan, they will finish top of the group.

"We want to win this game, this is not a friendly match. For us it is an important one because we want to be first in the group and we also want to show something to the crowd who will be at the stadium," Broos told the media on Monday.

"We had two amazing evenings in Bloemfontein and PE [Gqeberha] with the crowd in the stadium and a nice win. So, we will do that tomorrow [Tuesday] in Cape Town. That means we are still motivated for the game, and again it is very important for us to finalise the qualifiers as first in the group, it will be a cherry on top."

The Belgian coach, however, is likely to stick to the same team that beat Uganda 2-0 in their last match on Friday away, insisting he is taking this fixture as seriously.

"I want to keep all my players motivated for the game and I won't give any information to my opponent. You will have to wait until tomorrow [Tuesday] at 6pm," he said.

"I don't like taking this game as a friendly match, now when you start changing everything that means maybe players will feel [we are not taking the game seriously], what I meant from the beginning is I want to be first and we will try to put our best team on the pitch."

With the ticket to Morocco already secured, Broos added he will shift his focus to the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers to help Bafana qualify as well. "My worry after this is to qualify for the World Cup and we will see how we are going to do that in March, September and October. 

"This is our goal now after this game, the focus will shift to the World Cup because all South Africans want to see the team there. So, we will try to do that and we will analyse in the next months how we can be better than now, it is still possible."

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