Mosimane explains decision to rest Mofokeng and Appollis in Bafana Bafana’s Egypt win

Bafana Bafana head coach Pitso Mosimane says he deliberately left out key players Relebohile Mofokeng and Oswin Appollis for the 1-0 victory over Egypt so he could assess the strength of his squad.

Mosimane made the bold decision to field fringe players and inexperienced youngsters against the North African side at the Cairo International Stadium on Sunday night. He wanted to discover which members of his squad could cope with the demands of a major international fixture.

The gamble produced a notable result, with South Africa securing a historic away win.

Sipho Chaine captained an experimental Bafana Bafana team, which also included Lebone Seema and Thabang Matuludi in defence. Puso Dithejane scored the only goal in the 52nd minute after an impressive contribution from fellow debutant Shandre Campbell.

Explaining his team selection after the match, Mosimane said he believed there was no need to use Appollis or Mofokeng in the fixture and that the game provided the ideal opportunity to test other players.

“We had to rest Appolli (Appollis), Rele. We don’t need them for this match. Let’s see what we have at this level and there is no better game,” Mosimane said, according to SAFA media.

The Bafana Bafana manager had previously described the challenge as an opportunity to see whether his less experienced players could “swim with the sharks”.

He said the players had responded positively to the responsibility, while highlighting the contributions of goalkeeper Goss and captain Chaine.

“You have to give them this one and let them swim and drown and come out. And they did come out. Everybody played. Goss played and he saved us in the last 15 minutes. We can’t forget Chaine, he was the captain of the day. He did well. So, it’s good to see. Everything went well.”

The result gives South Africa three successive victories since the start of Mosimane’s new era and moves them up to 48th in the FIFA world rankings.

Bafana Bafana must now wait until November 2026 for their next major assignment, when they will play Kenya twice in back-to-back 2027 AFCON qualifiers.

Those matches will also see Mosimane come up against Benni McCarthy, Bafana Bafana’s all-time leading goalscorer.