As Stellenbosch FC prepare to face Egyptian giants Zamalek over two legs in the CAF Confederation Cup quarter-finals (April 2 at Cape Town's DHL Stadium & April 9 in Cairo), they will do as a club that has consolidated its position near the top.
After finishing 10th and 14th in their first two Premiership seasons, Stellies are now on course for a fourth consecutive top-six finish. Furthermore, they are also huge favourites to hold onto third place and a passage to the competition for a second season running.
Last season, Steve Barker's side won the Carling Knockout Cup and narrowly missed out on second place in the league to Orlando Pirates, which would have gained them entry into the CAF Champions League, settling for the Confederation Cup as consolation.
This season was always set to be a challenge with departures in key positions on and off the pitch - some to the benefit of their more illustrious rivals.
Mamelodi Sundowns snapped up striker Iqraam Rayners in August 2024 and midfielder Jayden Adams in January 2025. Orlando Pirates signed right-back Deano van Rooyen in August last year and supplemented that with head of performance Ruan Rust in a move confirmed three months later.
Still, Stellies have continued to win hearts, minds and crucial points, buoyed largely by the grit and newfound experience of players who had joined them as under-rated and overlooked journeymen.
Having reached the quarter-finals of the Confederation Cup at the first attempt, they will face Zamalek with now-familiar faces at the highest levels in Africa on board.
One is left-back Fawaaz Basadien, who joined Stellies from Swallows FC in 2022. Swallows had handed him his Premiership debut, but he earned more top-flight minutes in his first season in Barker's system than he had across the course of two Premiership seasons in Johannesburg.
Now 28, Basadien is not only holding down his starting spot for Stellies but has started the last three games for Bafana Bafana after coming off the bench for his debut against Uganda in November. His club teammate, Thabo Moloisane, was also in the squad for World Cup qualifying wins over Lesotho and Benin.
In the recent international window, Basadien assisted Lyle Foster's opener in the 2-0 over Benin. Playing for Bafana has been an experience that he believes has helped him prepare to face one of Africa's biggest clubs.
Basadien told ESPN: "If you look at the players who play in the national team, most of the players play in the CAF competitions [for their clubs].
"You're competing at the highest level and that does prepare you for the international stage, because you're competing with these types of players and you're learning and growing as a player also."
Having played predominantly on the wing in his first season at Swallows, Basadien played at left-back in his second. Barker has found a way to combine his strengths at both ends of the pitch, keeping him at left-back but allowing him to bomb forward in search of goals and assists. In eight Confederation Cup matches, he already has two of each for Stellenbosch.
Basadien said of Barker's coaching: "He makes it easy for you by implementing a gameplan that will not only benefit you, but the team as well. He knows my strengths and my weaknesses. It's how to work around those things and to bring other players that can assist in helping for the things to work [that matters].
"It's the environment that we as players are in and it brings the best out of us. For me, personally, that's my opinion, because when I came to this club, it just gave me that extra confidence to express myself and enjoy this beautiful game.
"When you enjoy the game, you always put in good performances and this is one of the main things that this club has given me as a player.
"I think he knows that I have a good passing range, I'm a good progresser of the ball, I'm a good set-piece taker and I can provide good crosses. I think that's mainly how he works around it and the movement off the ball for me to play those progressive passes is what he tries to implement."
According to New Zealand forward André de Jong - son of former Fortuna Sittard striker Fred de Jong - Stellenbosch is a club where all aspects of attack and defence are valued rather than simply the final touches.
While Fred had the privilege of playing in the Eredivisie, Andre was a renowned scorer in New Zealand who also played for semi-professional Australian side Maccabi Hakoah Sydney.
His first opportunity in South Africa came in 2019 when AmaZulu were looking to replace another player they had signed from New Zealand - Argentine-born Emiliano Tade, who had moved on to Mamelodi Sundowns.
De Jong moved to Stellenbosch in January 2023 after three years at AmaZulu and six months at fellow Durban side Royal AM.
"Here at Stellenbosch, they get me as a whole player, whereas maybe at AmaZulu, I was looked at just to score the goals or provide the assists. I think at Stellenbosch, they see me for all the smaller things - obviously work rate and maybe getting other people on the ball and getting out of tight spaces," he told ESPN.
"I think it's a very stats and numbers driven club, so often when we review games and stuff, it's often about stats and pure numbers. I've enjoyed learning about that rather than just how you felt about a game. Having hard evidence to back it up has been a nice change and really refreshing."
De Jong described AmaZulu as an "enjoyable environment" which enabled him to play in the CAF Champions League. However, de Jong, who is capable of playing across the front four and in midfield, has found his niche as a footballer at Stellenbosch.
"It's a good fit here at Stellenbosch. I think maybe at the other clubs... you didn't really get time to show your worth, but here, they've been nice and patient and it's been a good relationship," de Jong said.
"I think we've got a really good technical team. I think everyone gets along really well. The player-to-coaching staff relationship is really strong and very open, which wasn't always the case at other clubs, so I enjoyed having my input to the coaching staff and vice-versa."
Heading into the clash with Zamalek, both de Jong and Basadien have personal goals to add extra fuel along with the desire for team success. Basadien wants to catch the eye of overseas clubs as well as the traditional giants in South Africa, while de Jong is trying to win back his place in the New Zealand squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
His last cap was against Australia in September 2022, but according to de Jong, he maintains contact with All Whites head coach Darren Bazeley. Aged 28, he still has time on his side.
"I think this season, I've already put in a lot and contributed a lot to be in the conversation. I think the bigger the games get, there's more chance of some more eyes looking at it and pushing your case a bit more. I do think I'm there or thereabout and hoping to one day get the call-up," de Jong said.
Above anyone's individual ambitions, however, Stellenbosch is a club where everybody has become accustomed to fighting for silverware and a place in the top three. According to Basadien, who grew up around an hour-long drive from Stellenbosch in Grassy Park, qualifying for CAF competitions is particularly important to the club and community.
"This is basically a community team that helps and supports those who have talent in the community and they give them opportunities to express themselves and create something out of this beautiful game," he said.
"For us as a club, playing in this CAF competition means so much to the community. That's what they always dreamt of."
If this season's Nedbank Cup final is a repeat of last season's - Mamelodi Sundowns against Orlando Pirates - then both the third and fourth-placed teams in the Premiership will both qualify for next season's Confederation Cup. Otherwise, Stellies will have to clinch third in the league again to reserve their spot in next season's tournament.
At the back of their minds, Stellies will know they face a fight to retain their place on the continental stage. For now, their main focus will be slaying another giant. Zamalek are the defending Confederation Cup champions and one of Africa's biggest clubs.
Stellenbosch may be an unfamiliar opponent for them, but Zamalek are well aware of CAF Champions League quarter-finalists Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates - two clubs who are now regularly turning to Stellenbosch for personnel while struggling to shake them off in league and cup competitions.
Kaizer Chiefs, the other member of South Africa's traditional "big three" are on course to finish behind Stellenbosch for a third time in four seasons.
"Pirates, Sundowns, Chiefs - all of those teams are CAF Champions League quality teams. Sundowns have proven it. They have more or less the type of players or calibre of players that Zamalek have," Basadien said.
"I would take it as maybe facing those kinds of teams in the same kind of way as facing Zamalek.
"To see what the club and the sport means to those people [in Cairo], I've seen a few clips of it, so it's really something special. I've never experienced it, so I would like to see for myself what it is like.
"I think our home game is going to be different to when we go to Egypt, so we have to take advantage of our home game, put as much pressure on we can as Zamalek and impose our game plan on them, not fear them and take the game to them, attack them.
"When we go to Egypt, we know it's not going to be easy, but the most important thing is to try to get the result at home."