Johannesburg — Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams is banking on the unpleasant experiences that the team went through in the last few months to toughen them up ahead of their clash against Morocco.
It's been a tough few months for coach Hugo Broos’ relatively young squad. They lost out on qualifying for the World Cup after losing to Ghana in the last game of the group stage qualifiers.
That defeat came at the expense of a dubious penalty from N’diaye Maguette. But as if that was not enough. Bafana were walloped 5-0 by world champions France in an international friendly in March.
But such experiences – heartbreak and playing against the crowd – are expected to toughen up the South Africans as they aim to return to the Africa Cup of Nations, according to skipper Williams.
Bafana failed to qualify for the last Afcon finals in Cameroon this year. But they’ll begin their quest for Ivory Coast next year against Morocco out at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat, on Thursday.
Granted it won’t be an easy task for them against the North Africans, who have ultras that are fond of lasers and flares, but Williams is adamant they can learn from their recent misfortunes though.
“Definitely,” said Williams on taking a leaf out of the France experience. “But obviously, in the African continent we do it differently. There are a lot of flares and lazers involved from the stands.
“But like the coach said, we must experience it. I am happy that things happened the way they did in Ghana for the younger guys to experience and learnt from it. I think we gained valuable experience.”
Bafana’s road to Ivory Coast looks easy and difficult. They are expected to qualify as runners-up in Group K, alongside group winners Morocco and ahead of Liberia following the suspension of Zimbabwe by FIFA.
But strange things have happened in football, especially where Bafana is concerned. They’ve choked against the minnows, making it difficult to bet on them to come away with the necessary results.
But Williams, 30, one of the senior players in the team, has been through highs and lows with Bafana that he knows that they can’t undermine the lowly ranked Liberia and take things for granted at all.
“We had a talk after the World Cup campaign and we said ‘we need to take it one game at a time’. We were getting ahead of ourselves when things were going well early in the qualifiers,” he said.
“I know from my experiences, where we were leading or everything was going well and we would mess it up; like against Sudan or Cape Verde. Things like that. We have to take things game by game.”
Bafana are expected to touch down in Casablanca on Sunday afternoon before taking a short trip by bus to Rabat where they’ll camp. They were without the services of Cape Town City fullback Terrence Mashego.
Mashego was released from camp on Saturday, the day of departure, after sustaining a meniscus tear on his knee. He was dejected to be left behind, although he’s positive he’ll be ready for pre-season.
“It’s a very bad situation,” Mashego told the Bafana media department in Johannesburg. “But I don’t think it’s a bad injury because it’s just a tear on the meniscus. So, I believe that it will heal fast.”
IOL Sport