Williams positive about Bafana’s World Cup chances

Bafana Bafana’s new permanent captain Ronwen Williams believes they can make it to Qatar 2022, and that South Africa can be helped in their Group G campaign by problems some teams are facing in getting their best players.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has made travel more difficult than ever, and in England right now, there has been a decision taken by clubs not to release players for games in high-risk countries.

As such, Zimbabwe, Bafana’s opponents today in their opening Group G qualifier in Harare (kick off 3pm), do not have seven players that would ordinarily have made their squad.

Only the winners of Group G, which also contains Ghana, Bafana’s opponents at FNB Stadium on Monday, and Ethiopia, will make it into the play-offs which will decide Africa’s five places in Qatar. 

Bafana have no players in England, with Percy Tau recently moving to Al Ahly, and all the players called up by Hugo Broos have made it, though striker Thabiso Kutumela and defender Thibang Phete will miss the Warriors clash after testing positive for Covid-19 in camp.

“Realistically anyone can qualify (for the World Cup),” said Williams this week.

“Especially with the challenges other teams are facing. We don’t have as much of that problem … so we can use that to our advantage.

“That is why we play (to get to World Cups), to challenge ourselves, no one plays to lose,” added the Bafana goalkeeper.

“You don’t go in with a negative mentality. We want to be there and we want to fight. It will not be easy, half the team haven’t played at the highest level, but that is where myself and other senior players come in to encourage the others. They have an opportunity now to play for the national team. We need to grab it with both hands, and go out with a positive mind set.”

By ‘half the team’, Williams is referring to a young squad that Hugo Btoos has selected, with many that took part in this year’s Cosafa Cup, or were part of the Under-23 set up. It might even be better that many in the squad did not experience Bafana’s last attempt to make it to a major tournament, where a defeat in Sudan meant they did not make it to next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals.

“It is a new ball game, and we must use that setback to push us,” added Williams, one of the members of the squad who was there.

“We want to be there, we want to be part of the World Cup, we need to fight … we are still disappointed but we must learn from our mistakes.”