Ronwen Williams will lead Bafana Bafana as they seek third time luck on Tuesday night in their AFCON opener.
Darren Stewart
With all the optimism and pessimism that has greeted Bafana Bafana’s return to the AFCON finals after disappointingly failing to qualify for the previous tournament, the crucial business gets underway on Tuesday in Cote d’Ivoire.
The Stade Amadou Gon Coulibaly in Korhogo will be the venue for this Group E tie which will have Mali feeling at home as they will be playing just across the border from home.
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Minus the advantage of playing in front of a crowd that will be mostly rooting for them, The Eagles also come into the match sitting higher on the FIFA rankings and having never lost to Bafana Bafana at this tournament.
While Bafana only have three players plying their trade outside South Africa, the Malians only have third choice keeper Aboubacar Doumbia as the only local based player in their squad, which features players from the top leagues in England, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, and Italy.
Les Aigles (The Eagles) and Bafana have met twice before in this tournament and the West Africans were smiling at the end.
First out was the 2002 finals which they hosted.
At the end of 90 minutes, the Malians were 2-0 winners in the quarterfinals going past a strong team coached by Carlos Queiroz and featuring Hans Vonk, Mbulelo Mabizela, Aaron Mokoena, Bradley Carnell, Pierre Issa, Eric Tinkler, Thabo Mngomeni, Quinton Fortune, Siyabonga Nomvete, Sibusiso Zuma, Shaun Bartlett, and Benni McCarthy.
The next match between the two nations at the AFCON finals was when Bafana were hosts in 2013 under Gordon Igesund.
It was a quarterfinal tie again and after a 1-1 draw, Dean Furman, May Mahlangu, and Lehlohonolo Majoro failed to convert from the spot with Mali winning 3-1.
Hugo Broos will be the man hoping for third time luck against the difficult West Africans who will be playing in familiar conditions.
Broos has the experience having won the tournament before with Cameroon.
Tuesday night’s match is the 43rd that Bafana will play at the Nations Cup since making their debut in 1996 with another squad dominated by local based players.
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Encouraging for Broos is that he has improved Bafana, guided them to qualification, won 12 out of 23 since taking over and only lost four (Ghana, France, Morocco, and Rwanda).
Tuesday night’s game kicks off at 22h00 (SA time).
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