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On the up: Bafana keep climbing World Rankings as Mosimane boosts his numbers

Bafana Bafana claimed an impressive friendly win in Cairo
Bafana Bafana claimed an impressive friendly win in CairoRAHMA ABDELAZIZ / MIDDLE EAST IMAGES / MIDDLE EAST IMAGES VIA AFP

South Africa’s 1-0 friendly win over Egypt on Sunday has seen them climb another two places in the FIFA World Rankings to number 48, their highest position since June 2011 when Mosimane was last in charge.

Mosimane has wont here games in a row since his return to the helm, as good a start to his third tenure as he could have imagined. 

In the period of a little over a week he has boosted his win percentage with the national side from 42% to 48%, and the last three games have provided 30% of all the goals the side has scored in his 27-game history with the team, a rather insane statistic.

After wins over Guinea (2-1) and Eritrea (5-0), Bafana have also only conceded once in that time, continuing Mosimane’s reputation as a coach whose sides do not leak goals.

Even the one scored against them, by Guinea, had a heavy suspicion of offside.

Mosimane once before won three games in a row at the helm of the side and Egypt were involved then too, a run of success that saw them climb to 38th in the May 2011 World Rankings, their highest position in the last 22 years.

They defeated Kenya 2-0, edged then African champions Egypt 1-0 and defeated Tanzania 1-0 for a hat-trick of wins.

But that was as good as it got, the side won only one of their next nine games under Mosimane (D6 L2), leading to his exit from the coaching role a little over a year later.

With an exciting array of attacking talent at his disposal now, he will hope that the curse of the draws, which was really his undoing last time round over defeats, does not return. 

The current Bafana side’s ability to work their way through teams has been impressive, though they still look a targetman striker light unless Lyle Foster can rediscover his form in Houston. 

Bafana’s next assignments are home-and-away 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Benni McCarthy’s Kenya in the FIFA International Window from November 9-17. 

 

Nick Said has been covering African sport for almost three decades, specialising in football, rugby and cricket. He is based in Cape Town, South Africa and you can follow him on X and LinkedIn.

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