As they prepare to face Zimbabwe in Durban on Friday, which is technically an ‘away’ fixture, and Rwanda in Mbombela on Tuesday, they can point to a strong home record down the years that will give hope that they can earn the required results to get to the 2026 finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Six points should almost certainly get them there, but there is a very good chance four will be enough, which means a win and a draw out of the two games. That seems well within reach if they play with the same quality they have displayed in recent times.
They have 22 wins from 32 previous home qualifiers, a 69% win ratio. They have five draws and now those five defeats, the latter of which has a big asterisk next to it.
Their other four losses came against Ghana (0-2) in 2005, some 13 years after readmission to international football, Nigeria (0-1) in 2008, Senegal (0-2) in 2017 and most surprisingly Cape Verde (1-2), also in 2017 on a real off-day for the side.
That asterisked loss to Lesotho is their only 'defeat' in their last seven home World Cup qualifiers (W5 D1).
They have met Zimbabwe three times in home qualifiers and won on every occasion, while this will be the first time that Rwanda play in South Africa, against Bafana Bafana at least.
Perhaps ominously for their hosts, Rwanda have been to South Africa to play in these qualifiers twice already and won both times, with 1-0 wins over Zimbabwe (Johannesburg) and Lesotho (Durban).
CAF’s new strict stadium criteria mean several of South Africa’s neighbours have no venues suitable to host games and opt to play in South Africa instead where the choices are plentiful.
The late Phil Masinga scored Bafana’s their first ever home goal in the World Cup qualifiers when he netted after 27 minutes of a 1-0 win over Congo in 33 years ago. That was one of four home qualifier goals he scored, with others against Congo, DR Congo and Zambia.
Only Shaun Bartlett scored more for Bafana in home World Cup preliminary matches with six. Remarkably, Bafana kept clean sheets in their first eight home qualifiers before Zimbabwe’s Peter Ndlovu finally netted a penalty in 2001.
It would be 12 years on from their first game before they conceded a goal from open play when Cape Verde’s Janicio netted 12 minutes from full-time in 2004, and in all Bafana have kept their oppositions scoreless in 16 of their 32 home matches.
