SOWETAN | Back Bafana to bring back bronze

Bafana Bafana may have failed to pull off a miracle, but there’s no doubt when they return to the country next week from the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, they will receive a thunderous welcome, which even they would not have expected.

When they left more than three weeks ago to campaign in the event, many would have predicted that our team would return after just three matches. But tomorrow, they play a seventh fixture at the event, when many favourites have long departed the West African hosting country.

It has been a challenging but greatly rewarding experience for our national team, who suffered a heartbreaking semifinal defeat to Nigeria on Wednesday. We take pride in how they fought against a side who’ve become our nemesis since readmission.

Previously, Nigeria would easily overcome Bafana but records will now show that Wednesday’s result was actually a draw, and we lost only because our boys could not keep their composure in the shootout this time.

These things happen, as coach Hugo Broos noted in his post-match press conference, when he highlighted that Bafana won a match they shouldn’t have against Cape Verde in the quarterfinals last week, only to lose one they should have won against the Super Eagles.

We now call on the nation to back the team fully as they take on DR Congo in tomorrow’s playoff for bronze. Yes, it’s not the same as playing for gold, but Bafana playing for a medal from this tournament is something worthy of looking forward to.

We ask them for one more push, noting that they’ve had six arduous fixtures – the last two of which required extra time – under immense pressure from our notoriously demanding football fans.

Overall, Bafana have left huge impressions on everyone who followed the tournament, from the moment they suffered a defeat to Mali, and then bouncing back to shock Morocco, one of the tournament’s favourites, in the round of 16.

There have been plenty of heroes, and several others emerged in the heartbreaking defeat on Wednesday. Those include Grant Kekana, who sacrificed himself to get a red card and will thus miss tomorrow’s match. Khuliso Mudau could have been one, too, had he not missed a last-minute chance.

But we have to accept the disappointment that sport can bring, as we did the highs our team scaled over the past four weeks. We are just asking them to bring home that medal that no one would have given them a chance of getting.