Williams – AFCON bronze still hasn’t ‘sunk in’

Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams still can’t quite believe what his side achieved at the Africa Cup of Nations finals.

“It has not quite sunk in yet,” said Williams, upon the side’s arrival at OR Tambo International Airport on Thursday.

Bafana won the bronze medal at the AFCON, and Williams won Goalkeeper of the Tournament. The Mamelodi Sundowns shot-stopper kept five clean sheets in seven matches and to top that off, he saved six penalties across two penalty shootouts in the knockout stages.

In quarterfinals against Cape Verde, Williams became the first goalkeeper at an Fifa-recognised tournament to save four of the first five penalties ina shootout.

“It still feels unreal what we have achieved over the last few weeks,” added Williams.

‘Brotherhood’

“We have seen all the messages (from back home), and all the records broken, but in the moment, you are just thinking about the next game. I am just proud of the boys for the brotherhood they have shown.

“From day one the spirit was good and I think that is one of the reasons we were successful. It has been amazing to see and made things so easy for me as captain, just seeing the spirit through good and bad.

“When we lost to Mali (in Bafana’s opening AFCON match), no one’s head dropped. We were sad but the guys said ‘we can still go out there and get to the final’. It just shows the resilence and the intelligence to keep going and keep fighting.

“I just want to (also) thank everyone for their support (back home) for all the messages. We saw each and every one and appreciate it.”