Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams has provided insight into the national team’s focused mindset following a recent FIFA points deduction.
The thirty-three year old emphasized that the squad remains entirely concentrated on booking their spot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
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The deduction, which saw South Africa’s 2-0 victory against Benin overturned into a 3-0 defeat, was the result of an administrative oversight where midfielder Teboho Mokoena was fielded while suspended.
This dropped Bafana Bafana from a three-point lead to second place in their qualifying group.
Shifting Focus
Speaking ahead of a crucial qualifier, Williams was pragmatic about the ordeal. “It wasn’t good news, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” he stated.
“We need to control what we can and that is the next two games, and we still have an opportunity, a big opportunity, so we know how important it is.”
Williams confirmed that the points deduction has not been a topic of discussion within the squad.
The team’s collective decision is to avoid dwelling on unchangeable circumstances and instead dedicate all attention to the upcoming fixtures against Zimbabwe and Rwanda.
“Either way these two games were still going to be important, where we’d need to get the job done,” Williams explained. “We haven’t spoken about it, we don’t have to because we can’t do anything about it now.
We rather focus and put our energy into the next two games. If you see the energy in training, you can see it’s a team that means business.”
Bafana Bafana will kick off their crucial tie against Zimbabwe on Friday at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. Kick off is set for 18h00 in Durban.