Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos says the opportunity to reach the Last-4 of the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 24 years is also motivation for the squad to emulate the class of 1996 in Ivory Coast.
South Africa face Cape Verde on Saturday in the quarter-final of the continental showpiece, with the chance of reaching the semi-finals for the first time since the 2000 Nations Cup.
A bulk of the 1996 AFCON winners were part of that squad, with Shaun Bartlett winning the Golden Boot where Nigeria ousted them, before beating Tunisia in the third/fourth playoff.
Since then it’s been a slippery slope for Bafana on the continental stage, with three group stage exits, three quarter-final exits and not qualifying on four occasions.
This led to support dwindling in the national team in recent years, something that’s now evidently picked up during the past few weeks as South Africa is on the brink of something special in West Africa.
“I always said [support] comes with results, once you have results, the rest will come, so I think we can say now we have good results,” Broos said about fans flocking to buy Bafana shirts this week.
“Secondly it’s certainly a motivation for all my players, that it’s been so long since South Africa played the semi-final or final [of AFCON], so that motivates us to do as good as the guys of ’96.
“So it’s normal when you’re a sportsman you want to do great things and I know my players will do that if you saw the reaction in the dressing room after the game against Morocco, you can be sure they are motivated to do something special.”
Much-maligned Evidence Makgopa said from the player’s perspective, they understand what’s at stake.
South Africa came into the tournament ranked 13th and seeded third despite losing only two games over 18 months of improvement under Broos where they qualified for the AFCON in the group alongside number one ranked African nation Morocco – who they ironically beat in the Last-16.
“They are ready for it, I know that – I see that but okay, it’s not enough, we have to do it and we’ll try to do it on Saturday,” he added in his brief statement.
“We’re all motivated, all the players are motivated, we all want to be in the good history books, that’s it, yes.”
