Bafana Bafana starts Afcon qualifying campaign with a draw

Soccer

─── ILSE SMALBERGER 09:14 Sat, 07 Sep 2024

Veli Mothwa. Photo: BackpagePix

"But what we showed after we went 2-1 down is what we wanted to see … a draw is better than a defeat.”

On Friday evening, Bafana started their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) campaign with a 2–2 draw against Uganda at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg.

The home team started strongly and scored the first goal in the 14th-minute courtesy of Lyle Foster, but failed to capitalise on many more scoring chances.

Bafana Bafana went into half-time leading by 1–0. Still, Uganda drew level in the 51st minute thanks to careless play by the home team, losing the ball and giving Denis Omedi a clear shot past stand-in goalkeeper Veli Mothwa.

Uganda scored another goal two minutes later when Rogers Mato took a chance from 40 meters out. The ball should have been comfortably saved, but Mothwa had a horrendous time at the goal and the ball slipped through his hands to find the back of the net.

It looked like the writing was on the wall for the hosts, but substitute Thalente Mbatha struck a debut goal five minutes into injury time to salvage a draw.

Hugo Broos. Photo: BackpagePix

After the match, coach Hugo Broos defended his selection of Mothwa to SABC Sport.

“Uganda were sharper than us and we know why,” said Broos. “Players in our team have not had enough competitive games. We saw that in the second half. We gave two goals away. But what we showed after we went 2-1 down is what we wanted to see … a draw is better than a defeat.”