Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has shared insight into the winning mentality brewing within the squad.
South Africa remain unbeaten going into their final 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, having already qualified alongside Uganda with two games to spare.
However, they beat the Cranes in Kampala at the Mandela National Stadium on Friday afternoon with a 2-0 scoreline to move top of Group K with four wins and two draws.
The stalemates came in their opening against the East Africans at Orlando Stadium, and against Congo Brazzaville with a 1-1 draw away from home.
Added to them cruising through to a consecutive AFCON, they are joint top of their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying group with Rwanda and finished third at the 2023 AFCON in Ivory Coast, a far cry from the squad he inherited who failed to get a point against Sudan to secure a place at the continental showpiece for Cameroon 2021.
“You try to win as many games as you hope to win, but it’s very important – like we did [against Uganda] to keep clean sheets,” Broos said.
“When you have clean sheets, you have at least one point, we did that well. For the rest we tried to win every game, we never play to lose, or draw, we play to win.
“It’s very important for South Africa, that we win this group, we were qualified but not happy to be second in the group. We succeeded in beating Uganda, it’s the cherry on top. Okay, we’re qualified, we could have lost today and next Tuesday and still go to AFCON.
“But it’s not what we want, we want to win every game and we fought for it today against a tough opponent and we will fight next Tuesday for another three points.”
South Africa host South Sudan on Tueday afternoon at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town (18h00).
