Williams wants rock solid Bafana at AFCON 2025

Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams believes defensive strength will again be key as South Africa hope to go deep in a second successive Africa Cup of Nations.

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Bafana will play Angola today in their opening Group B match at the Marrakech stadium in Morocco.

Bafana’s classy defensive reputation

South Africa surprised the continent at the last AFCON finals in the Ivory Coast, as they won a bronze medal. Hugo Broos’ side’s success was built on having an extremely strong defence in the competition.

They only conceded three goals in the entire tournament.

“In the last AFCON we saw how important it was to keep clean sheets,” said Williams yesterday at the pre-match press conference.

“We kept five clean sheets in seven games and that is what we will need again to go all the way. If we don’t concede we know we have the quality up front to score.”

This is Williams’ third AFCON finals – he also helped Bafana reach the quarterfinals at the 2019 tournament in Egypt.

At 33, he is still six years younger, however ,than Angola ‘keeper Hugo Marques, who could line up in goal for Palancas Negras today.

Williams knows Marques well from when he spent a season in South Africa at Cape Town City, and from Sundowns’ continental club meetings with Angolan giants Petro de Luanda.

“They say goalkeepers mature like wine, the older we are the better we get,” added Williams.

“Africa is blessed with amazing goalkeepers. If you look through all the teams and see the goalkeepers, the talent is scary. I know Marques well, he played in the local league (in SA). It will be good to see a familiar face and it is good to see guys like him and Denis Onyango (Uganda’s ‘keeper) still going.

Williams – ‘We all support each other’

“They say there is a goalkeeper’s corner. We all support each other. We know how difficult the position is and the pressure. It is good to see these goalkeepers still having the hunger to play at the highest level.”

Bafana head coach Hugo Broos, meanwhile, said his side have no injury worries heading into the clash with Angola.

“Everyone is 100 percent fit, no problem,” said Broos, who said they have done their analysis of Palancas Negras.

“We have done enough analysis of our opponent in the past weeks, so we have an idea (of our starting line-up),” he added.

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“The team will not be changed a lot compared to previous matches. Maybe there will be some changes – this is another opponent, maybe an opponent that plays a different football from (regular) African football.

“We have to be aware of that and their qualities, so from that perspective we have to see what will be the best team to play tomorrow.”