Tau confident Bafana can still progress

Bafana Bafana vice-captain, Percy Tau, has urged his teammates to regroup and focus on their must-win Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) Group E match against Namibia on Sunday (10pm).

Bafana got their Afcon campaign off to a poor start after they lost 0-2 to Mali in their opening match on Tuesday to sink to bottom of their group.

They will need to beat Namibia, who will be coming into this match with their confidence high following their 1-0 victory over Tunisia also on Tuesday.

Tau, 29, who missed a penalty early in the first half, said all is not lost with Namibia and Tunisia matches remaining and he is confident they can get six points.

“We just have to regroup and go again against Namibia. We know it’s going to be a difficult one again also, but then, it just hurts right now," Tau told the media after the match.

“This is not the start we wanted. If we scored a goal, I mean if we scored the penalty, it could have changed the game.”

The Al Ahly attacker also said he took full responsibility after he skied the penalty, which would have given Bafana a lead before Mali scored twice in the second half through strikes from Hamari Traore and Lassine Sinayoko.

Bafana were in control in the first half at the Stade Amadou Gon Coulibaly in Korhogo but that miss proved to be a decisive moment.

“We missed it, so we prolonged the game. It hurts, at the moment, it still hurts. I will try and get it out because we still have two games to play and I will try and get the results,” he added.

“I’m confident we can progress even though it hurts right now. We should have scored the goal. I missed a penalty, which gave them confidence to keep going. If we scored a goal, it would be a better game. It would change the game entirely.

“But we still have six points to play for. We will give our best we want to go through.”