Bafana Bafana complete preparations for AFCON 2015

Bafana Bafana travelled to Equatorial Guinea on Friday January 16 after completing their preparations for the CAF Orange Africa Cup of Nations tournament, which starts on Saturday January 17 with the final scheduled for Sunday February 8.

Bafana Bafana open their AFCON account with a clash against Algeria on Monday January 19.

The South Africans started their training camp in Johannesburg on Friday January 2 and then played Zambia in a warm-up match, winning 1-0.

Bafana Bafana then moved to Libreville, Gabon on Wednesday January 7, where they played two matches.

Shakes Mashaba’s boys held the much-fancied Cameroon to a 1-1 draw on Saturday, January 10, before rounding off preparations with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Mali on Wednesday, January 14 at Stade Monedan in Libreville, Gabon.

Despite making six changes to the clash with Mali, the South Africans proved too strong for the opposition.

“We are looking forward to the start of the tournament. We are happy with the preparations, especially in matches against Cameroon and Mali. We now know what we are going to face in Equatorial Guinea, and yes, it is going to be tougher than this. But I would like to say to our boys, job well done. Mali had almost all their players from abroad, which is clear indication that it was not an easy game,” said Shakes Mashaba, Bafana Bafana Head coach.

“Well, we are comfortable. The more you win, the more enemies you create for yourself, and I can tell you now that in the AFCON we will give a good account of ourselves. When we started, nobody gave us a chance, now people are starting to raise eyebrows and asking who are these ones coming from the South Africa? But they will know when we play them. If you look at Mali, they have some of the best international players, but my boys made it look very simple. I think we are doing well. So far so good.”