Staff Reporter.
South Africa will take aim at Sierra Leone when the teams meet for an International Friendly at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on the afternoon of Saturday 24 September 2022. Kick-off is at 3pm CAT.
Bafana Bafana return to full senior action for the first time since a 2-1 loss away to Morocco in 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification back in June. The defeat in North Africa followed a 5-0 humbling at the hands of World Cup winners France.
Since then, the ‘A’ team has been involved in the COSAFA Cup and African Nations Championship (Chan) qualification, most recently succumbing 6-1 on aggregate to Angola in a two-legged tie played in late August and early September.
Preparing for the resumption of Afcon qualifiers in March next year is the focus for coach Hugo Broos and his charges, with a second friendly against Botswana set to come on Tuesday 27 September.
“The past is behind us and we fight now for a place in the Africa Cup of Nations. This is all that matters and we test our might against Sierra Leone and Botswana,” said vice-captain Siyanda Xulu.
Captain and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams agrees with this sentiment: “We need to regain our confidence, but it’s not a given that we will do this against either Botswana or Sierra Leone, because on the African continent there are no easy opponents, we will give our all. It’s about putting our best boot forward.”
Bafana coach Hugo Broos, meanwhile, believes he and his team have received unfair criticism for their losses to Ghana (in 2022 World Cup qualification), France and Morocco in the past 10 months.
“When we drew Ghana for the World Cup qualifiers everyone said to me, ‘It will be very difficult because how can we beat Ghana?’ We did it in September [2021], but we lost the crucial game in Ghana [in November 2021]. And from that moment my critics started. There were already some people asking for my resignation,” said the Belgian.
“Then came the game against France, and the defeat was big. But we played against the world champions but everybody forgot that.
“And after that it was Morocco. I think if you were asked before the game against Morocco whether you thought SA would win there, I think every South African would say, ‘It will be very difficult… Morocco are a good team.”
Sierra Leone’s last ‘senior’ matches were a narrow 2-1 defeat away to Nigeria and 2-2 draw at home to Guinea-Bissau in Afcon qualifiers played in June.
“We were disappointed not to get something out of the [Nigeria] game. We came with a positive feeling. We felt we could go back home with a positive result,” said Sierra Leone coach John Keister. “We have a lot of young players in the team and it reflected in our performance.”
In head-to-head stats, South Africa and Sierra Leone have met in four previous matches. The Leone Stars boast an unbeaten record, with one win and three draws.
The most recent clash between the teams was a 0-0 draw in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier played at Mbombela Stadium in October 2011 – this was the match which ended with Bafana Bafana believing they had qualified for the following year’s Afcon on goal difference, when in fact they had lost out to Niger on a head-to-head tie-breaker.