South Africa's 3-0 win over Rwanda that booked them a place in the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico was not only a strong footballing performance but also a symbol of the resilience that coach Hugo Broos has instilled in the team.
Bafana Bafana faced a self-made crisis heading into the final game, as they trailed Benin by two points at the top of Group C. After relinquishing top spot by having their March win over Lesotho overturned for fielding the ineligible Teboho Mokoena, they dropped two more points in a 0-0 draw with Zimbabwe on Saturday.
However, Benin 's 4-0 defeat by Nigeria left Bafana with a fighting chance: Victory over Rwanda was all they needed to progress. In the past, this is the sort of opportunity that South Africa had become accustomed to squandering.
When Broos watched Bafana Bafana lose a decisive 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier to Sudan five years ago, when they needed only a draw to make the tournament in Cameroon, he saw a team backed by a relative abundance of resources but foiled by a lack of mental fortitude.
That match led to the departure of his predecessor, Molefi Ntseki, and the Belgian's subsequent appointment as head coach. Almost five years later, he has delivered on his mission to overhaul Bafana Bafana's belief in their own abilities -- with his focus on youth paying off.
"I saw the game against Sudan, and Bafana Bafana needed only one point, and when I see the way they played the game there in Sudan... I couldn't understand it," Broos told ESPN in 2021 after making early progress in changing the results and culture of the team. "You go until the end -- until you die -- but you need that point. This was not the mentality I saw.
"So then I started to see who was playing. There were so many players of 27, 28, 29 years old. Afterwards, there was someone who was telling me: 'Yes, coach, but those players are experienced.'
"I said: 'Yes, that's right, but if you do not play the younger players, then when are they going to have experience?'
"So, therefore, I started also with young players who had quality. This is the first thing they need to have, and that's why we have such good results."
That process has now paid dividends, with a dominant performance led by young players who were cool, calm and collected from the first whistle to the last. Bafana led 2-0 at halftime, courtesy of a long-range Thalente Mbatha strike and a curling finish by Oswin Appollis, before Evidence Makgopa's 72nd-minute header sealed the win that saw South Africa qualify for their fourth World Cup -- and their first since they hosted the tournament in 2010.
Broos, alone, cannot take credit for the development of players such as Mbatha, Appollis and Makgopa -- Orlando Pirates stars in their mid-20s -- but the former Cameroon head coach, who won the 2017 AFCON against all odds, was a driving force for South Africa's nationwide shift in attitudes towards young players. Makgopa, in particular, was a beneficiary, as he scored a brace on his Bafana Bafana debut in Broos' first match in charge -- a 3-2 win over Uganda in June 2021. Then at Baroka FC, Makgopa had not been fancied to lead the line at international level, but Broos took a chance on him and it paid off.
Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns -- the two dominant clubs in South Africa over the past decade -- also deserve their fair share of credit.
Sundowns have invested heavily under the ownership of Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe, who bought a controlling stake in 2003 and then the remaining shares the following year. However, the culture of the club changed specifically during Pitso Mosimane's tenure as head coach from 2012 to 2020.
Off the back of a disappointing spell in charge of Bafana Bafana, a reinvigorated Mosimane led Sundowns to their first CAF Champions League title in 2016 -- only the second by a South African club; Pirates previously won it in 1995.
That triumph -- and Sundowns' dominance of the South African Premiership under Mosimane and successors Manqoba Mngqithi, Rhulani Mokwena and Miguel Cardoso -- forced their rivals to level up and take continental competitions more seriously.
None could quite match the financial might of Sundowns, but Pirates improved their talent development and recruitment structures -- and their streamlined squad has closed the gap on a Sundowns side now struggling with fatigue and player discontent after the FIFA Club World Cup, a tournament that saw them impress on the global stage but face struggles keeping their players away from prying eyes elsewhere in the world.
Broos has often encouraged Bafana Bafana players to move overseas, but facing an injury crisis heading into a decisive qualifier, he started with an entirely locally-based XI. South Africa started five Sundowns players -- Ronwen Williams, Khuliso Mudau, Aubrey Modiba, Mokoena and Thapelo Morena -- five Pirates players -- Mbatha, Appollis, Makgopa, Nkosinathi Sibisi and Sipho Mbule -- and one from TS Galaxy, Khulumani Ndamane.
That, alone, speaks volumes of the quality in South Africa's club football.
However, this is nothing new.
What is new -- first and foremost -- is the apparent end of the days when South African players were viewed as too comfortable and pampered to win when the going got tough.
Having finished third at AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast, Bafana are among the favorites for the tournament in Morocco in December and January. At the World Cup, the goal will be to make the knockout rounds for the first time.
The qualification campaign exposed that the South African Football Association still has a long way to go before it can offer Bafana the support they need to reach their full potential; but if the mentality in the upper echelons of the organization still needs to change, the players and coach are now embodiments of the promise of what South African football is capable of being.