Bafana Bafana Look to Bounce Back as Williams Urges Belief

Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams has called on his teammates to stay composed, focused, and self-assured ahead of their crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Rwanda at Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday night.

Speaking during a pre-match press conference in Nelspruit on Monday, Williams alongside coach Hugo Broos emphasised that belief and consistency remain key to their approach.

Setbacks have put South Africa's World Cup qualification hopes out of their control. Bafana Bafana lost four valuable points in their last two qualifiers — drawing 1-1 with Nigeria in September and then playing to a 0-0 stalemate against neighbouring Zimbabwe in Durban on October 10.

Williams said the players mean business. “If you could have seen our latest training you would have seen that the boys mean business. I mean, the coach emphasised this, why do we need to start doubting ourselves now? Yes, it was a setback, but we shouldn’t forget what we’ve done over the last few years.

“We have come in leaps and bounds, and you know we’ve done extremely well. So, we don’t have to change much, we don’t have to have any doubts, and we still believe in the team that we’ve got. We still believe that there’s all to play for and we believe that we can make history tomorrow. You can feel and you can sense that inside the team and the players, the mindset is good. But like I said, of course we would have loved things to be different, but they are not. So, the boys know that we have to dig deep, we have to go again and just leave it all on the field tomorrow night,” he said.

Bafana Bafana Coach Broos said he was happy that his team was right back on track and was looking forward to the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Rwanda. Broos’ charges need to beat Rwanda and then hope that the Nigerians beat Benin at home on the same day.

He said he needed his charges to shake off the disappointment of drawing 0-0 with Zimbabwe. Broos said the spark is back in the team and the players are now fully prepared for the showdown against Rwanda.

“We are back mentally and that is very important. The (team’s) qualities didn’t disappear with the draw against Zimbabwe. It was mentally that we had to recover and turn the button. You can be sure that the button has been turned, and mentality, the team spirit and the belief is there again,” he said.

“This is another amazing thing about this team and after the uppercut we got on Friday, everyone can turn the button and focus on the next job in the shortest period of time. Therefore, I believe again and I’m confident that tomorrow we will fight for it again, and we will try to win the game, and we will have a big chance to win.”

Rwanda coach Adel Amrouche said he would give an opportunity to several players who did not feature much in their previous matches. “We want to give other players time to play because this is a good game for them to play against a very good team,” he said.

The match kicks off at 6pm.